When Angels Deserve to Die
by SpazChan395
Summary: Danny befriends an abused girl down the street. What happens when she finds out he's a ghost? Ghosts are spirits of the dead that are bound to this world by unfinished business, right? And why is she stalked by ghosts? DannyXOC Rated for future
1. Moving In

I decided to revamp this Danny Phantom fic so it'll hopefully make a bit more sense. To those who are already a fan of this story, I apologize for the inconvenience but this will likely have to be reread to get all the new details I added.

This fic has several different themes than just to 2 listed in the summary, it contains possibly a bit of every genre, I simply chose the 2 that were the most prominent.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon do, please don't sue.

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Chapter 1: Moving In

…

It was the middle of July, and summer vacation was in full swing. Danny and his friends were trying to take full advantage of the freedom they had to hang out. But even with so much time on their hands, there was hardly anything they could think of to do. That is the curse of summer vacation; the first few weeks are totally awesome, but everything after that gets really boring. Strange that three sixteen-year-olds could find absolutely nothing to do in a town like theirs. Well, they weren't going to stay bored for long. They were on their way to Danny's house when it all began.

"So, you guys wanna play video games?" Danny asked dully, "Or maybe watch TV?"

Sam groaned, "Heck no! We've been doing that all summer!"

"Yeah," Tucker drooped his shoulders, "we gotta find something to do or I'll go crazy!"

They continued their trek to Danny's house, still trying to come up with something, _anything_ to do! They reached the corner just down the street from Danny's house, when they saw the SOLD sign in the yard across the street.

"Hey," Tucker pointed out, "someone finally bought the Dirt Shed."

'Dirt Shed' is what the local kids called it, and for good reason. It was a twisted, tiny old house, and was raised up on a hill, almost like it could be something straight out of a Tim Burton movie. It was surrounded by a picket fence, the paint peeled off from years of being uncared for. The gate to the fence opened to a long, steep, crooked wooden staircase that led to a porch and the front door. The wide porch looked unsafe to tread upon, a stray cat lived under it and hunted rats and mice that lived in the house. Weeds overran the lawn, if it could be called that. There were boards and shingles missing everywhere and the shutters swung in the breeze. An old apple tree grew in the back, fruit fallen and rotting in the sun.

Danny and his friends used to think that it was haunted, but after he got his ghost powers, they found out it wasn't. But nonetheless, it was still a creepy house. Nonetheless, the teens walked quickly passed it, superstitious about it being cursed and what not.

Sam shuttered, "I hate that place; it gives me the creeps!"

"Of course, no one wants to be anywhere near—" Tucker never finished his sentence.

An old rusty pickup sputtered to a stop in front of the house. It rattled loudly with age and its' breaks creaked when it stopped. Junk was piled in the bed and strapped down with rope. The driver side door opened and out stepped the definition of a redneck if the teens ever saw one. He was dirty, fat and scruffy with overalls and a red plaid shirt. A cigarette settled in his mouth, the smell of smoke and liquor radiating off him from all the way down the street.

"Unload the truck, Henry," he grunted.

Two young boys jumped out the passenger side, "Yeah, unload the truck, Henry!" they chimed in unison.

A strange scruffy kid stepped down behind the boys. The trio likely figured it was a guy at a cursory glance, until he spoke up.

"Yes, Uncle Rege," she said in a feminine voice, and closed the door.

She was dirty like Uncle Rege, but not dressed nearly as close to a hillbilly. She wore an old baggy yellow hoodie that was at least two sizes too big and equally baggy torn jeans. Her hair was a strange shadow of burgundy red and was chopped scraggly and short. Her baby blue eyes were bright but sad. She walked around to the back of the truck and opened the back lip to climb in. She didn't look up or even notice the teens, just set to work untying the rope.

Uncle Rege opened the gate, tread up the crooked steps toward the front door, and pulled keys from his pocket that were obviously meant for the front door, "Hurry up, I need to get to work," he threw over his shoulder.

"Yeah," the boys said again, "hurry up, Henry!" as they ran up the steps to explore the small yard.

"Yes, Uncle Rege," she said dully and unloaded box after box from the back.

Danny and his friends just watched them for a while, 'Henry' unpacking the truck while Uncle Rege and the boys did nothing to help. There wasn't too much to unload though, mostly boxes but some odds and ends, though there was an armchair and mattresses that she struggled with. A lot of the boxes were big and heavy and Henry had to lower them slowly backwards from the truck.

As soon as everything was unloaded on the sidewalk, Henry closed the back and brushed the front of her hoodie with her palms, "All done, Uncle Rege."

"Now move it into the house," Uncle Rege came down the steps, roughly placing a key in her hand and went around the side of the truck and climbed back into the truck, "I want all this stuff in there by the time I get back."

"Yeah, Henry, move it into the house," the boys hopped in with Uncle Rege and they chugged away; why the boys had to go was anyone's guess.

The disheveled teen sighed and picked up a large box. She stumbled under the awkward weight and put it back down to get a better hold. Danny, being the nice boy he was, decided he'd seen enough of the poor girl handling everything on her own and walked toward her. Tucker and Sam soon followed suit. Henry was still bent over the box when Danny approached her.

"Hi," Danny said cheerfully, "would you like some help with all that?"

Henry looked up at him questioningly. _Who is this guy? And why would he want to help me?_

"Uh, sure, if you want," she lifted the box with a grunt.

Now that they were all standing so close, Danny noticed that she was slightly shorter than he or either of his friends were, but not a dwarf, just on the small side. He smiled and picked a box up. Sam and Tucker grabbed a box each as well and all four of them marched up the long stairway to the porch, teetering slightly from its' uneven surface and weight of the contents they were carrying. Henry set her box down, inserted the old key and jiggled the handle; it was stuck. She growled, backed up and kicked the door open cop-style.

The house inside was even worse than the outside. The ceiling was half gone, dust coated every inch of the floor and wallpaper was peeling off the walls. Henry picked up her box and went inside. The gang hesitated, not sure if it was safe to enter such an unstable house.

Henry put her box down and turned to them, "What's wrong?"

"Are you sure the roof's not gonna fall down on us or something?" Sam looked up at the weak-looking boards overhead.

"Don't worry," Henry looked up, "we've lived in worse homes than this," then she looked back at them, "I never got your names."

"Oh," Danny came inside and set his box down, followed closely by Sam and Tucker, "I'm Danny Fenton, and this is Tucker Foley and Sam Manson."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Henrietta Cooper," she smiled lightly and walked back to the door to the porch.

"Where'd you get your name?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"My grandparents gave it to me, but most people call me Henr-"

The second Henry stepped down the first step of the staircase, it broke and she went rolling all the way down. She landed on her head at the bottom, twitching slightly.

She rubbed her sore crown, "Watch that first step!"

Everyone laughed; it was good that she had a sense of humor.

…

In no time at all, all the stuff was inside the house and was in the process of being unpacked. Henry's stuff went upstairs to the loft, which was more like an attic, where her room would be. Lifting a mattress and a heavy cedar chest up the steps to the loft was no small feat though; a lot of struggling and maneuvering ensued. Several boxes of Uncle Rege's precious bottled wine and whiskey went down in the basement. Henry had brought a small radio with her and put on a tape while they unpacked on the main floor.

"What is that?" Tucker asked.

"Walt Disney Records 60 Years of Magic," she smacked the radio to get it working, "I like to sing to it sometimes; it helps make working go faster."

"You sing?" Danny was sorting silverware that got mixed up on the trip.

"Yeah," Henry blushed, "but only to myself, but _this_ is my true love," she pulled up an old instrument case.

Tucker raised a curious eyebrow, "What's that?"

Henry opened the case and gently lifted the old instrument out, "This is my grandpa's violin, he gave it to me before he died. It's one of the few things Uncle Rege let me keep all these years," she rested it against her shoulder and turned the knobs on the end to tune it.

"Cool," Sam said, "Are you any go at it—"

She didn't quite get to finish her sentence before Henry burst into a wild, down-home fiddle song, like something Charlie Daniels would play, then slowed it down to a soft classical ballad, then a deep dramatic climax.

Henry swung the bow at her side, quite satisfied with herself, "Looks like it made it in one piece," she gently set it back in its' case, "thank heavens it didn't break in the move."

She looked up to a dumbstruck trio and suddenly felt very self-conscious, "W-what?"

"Dude!" Tucker exclaimed, "That was rockin'! Where'd you learn to play like that?"

Henry blushed, "My grandpa taught me a little, and I'd sneak into band practice at the local high school occasionally to learn a few things. But I just do it for fun, just a hobby."

"You should try out for the band at Casper when school starts," Sam unpacked several glasses carefully, "you'd totally get in with your skills."

She shook her head vigorously, "No way, I'm _way_ too shy!"

…

Soon everything was unpacked and set neatly in their newly designated places. After their hard work, they all sat on the porch drinking water from the recently unpacked glasses. They talked about nothing in particular, just talked for the sake of talking really. The sun was going down, so the air was nice and warm, not scorching hot like midday.

Henry paused halfway in their conversation, "Hey guys?"

They could sense she was being serious, "What's up?" Tucker asked between sips.

She fidgeted nervously, "Are we friends?"

Danny scoffed playfully, "Yeah, of course."

Henry perked up, "Really? That's so awesome!"

"And, since we're friends," Sam piped in, "you wanna hang out tomorrow?"

"_Are you serious?_"

"Yeah," Danny pointed down the street, "That's my house right down there, we can hang there tomorrow."

Henry got up and ran down the steps, almost tripping over her own feet. She leaned over the gate to see down the street where Danny had pointed.

"Is it that one with all the stuff on it?"

"Yep," Danny scratched the back of his head sheepishly, a bit embarrassed about all the ghost gear.

She leaned even farther over and fell over the front and hit the pavement face first.

"Crap in a hat!" she got to her feet, rubbing her head, "I'm gonna have a concussion by tomorrow at this rate!"

They all laughed and Henry walked back up the stairs.

"Seriously, are you okay?" Sam calmed herself.

"Oh, believe me," Henry wiped a small cut on her forehead, "This is nothing, you should see what happens when—" she stopped in mid sentence and sat down beside them.

"When what?" Danny inquired.

Henry played nervously with the front of her hoodie, "Nothing, really."

They all sat in silence for the next few minutes, until Uncle Rege's truck swerved down the road and pulled up in front of the house. Danny could feel his new friend tense next to him. The truck drove up on the sidewalk and stopped awkwardly. Uncle Rege and the two boys jumped out and started up the stairs.

"Look, Pa!" one of the boys shouted, "Henry made some friends!"

Henry cowered beneath Uncle Rege's hawk like gaze, "Is this true, Henry?"

She swallowed hard and nodded.

"And she's going to hang out with us tomorrow," Sam said with a hint of sarcasm.

Uncle Rege glared daggers at the teens, "Oh really?" then scowled down at Henry, "Not unless you finish your chores!"

"Yes, Uncle Rege," she flinched.

"Now get outta here, ya buncha punks!" he stepped passed the teens into the house.

The boys followed their father, "Yeah, go home punks!"

They sat there for a moment; staying with Henry for a little while to make sure she'd be okay. She gathered the glasses from them and walked them down to the gate.

"Don't sweat it," Henry tried but failed to sound cheerful, "I'll get my chores done first thing in the morning, and then run right over. I still see where your house is, Danny."

"Yeah," he tried to sound happy as well, "we'll be waiting."

So the three friends went their separate ways back to their houses, each looking forward to tomorrow to hang out with their new friend.

…

End Chapter 1

…

Well, R+R and tell me what you think, the story will hopefully start to get better.


	2. Boo!

In this chapter, Henry visits Danny's house and meets his family, so on and so forth, just read and find out!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, zip, zilch, nada!

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Chapter 2: Boo!

…

When Henry said she'd be over in the morning, she'd be over in the morning. Jack stepped out the get the morning paper and found the scruffy teen curled up on the welcome mat, sleeping. He had never met her, so he didn't really know who she was.

"Hey kid," he shook her awake, "You okay?"

Henry stirred, "Uh?" she looked around, "oh, sorry, I guess I _am_ a little early."

"Early?" Jack raised an eyebrow, "Oh, you must be that new kid from down the street Danny was talking about!"

_He was talking about me?_ Henry yawned, "That's me, who are you?"

"I'm Danny's father, Jack," he said proudly, "you can come inside. Danny isn't up yet, but you can make yourself comfortable."

Henry got up and brushed herself off, "Sure, thank you."

"Well, come on in," he put his large warm hand on her back to guide her inside.

She was hesitant at first, not many people just usher in children off the street into their house. But this man seemed really nice, so she was pretty sure she had nothing to worry about, he was probably as nice as Danny.

Jazz was up and ready to go to one of those young achievers things. She was at the breakfast table eating a bowl of cereal while reading a book when Henry and Jack entered.

"Good morning Jazzy," Jack said cheerfully, "have you met Danny's new friend yet?"

She looked up from her bowl of cereal, "No, is this the girl Danny told us about?'

Henry blushed and nodded, "I think that would be me," she held out a hand courteously, "My name is Henrietta Cooper, but everyone calls me Henry, who might you be?"

The older teen smiled and reached up to shake her hand, "I'm Jasmine Fenton, but most people just call me Jazz. That's an interesting name you have."

Henry smiled, "Yeah, my grandparents gave it to me, I like it _sometimes_," she said with a slight giggle, then looked down at the book Jazz had, "What are you reading?"

Jazz looked back down at her book, "Oh, it's just a book about classic literature and meanings behind stories and poetry people wrote in the olden days wrote."

Henry perked up, "Does it have the Jabberwocky in it?"

The older teen seemed to perk up at that as well, "Why yes it does, have you read Through the Looking-Glass?"

"Bits and pieces," the smaller teen pulled up a chair next to Jazz, "I first heard the bit the Cheshire Cat in the Disney Alice in Wonderland movie sings, then I asked my grandma about it. She was an English teacher and taught me a lot about this stuff."

Jazz laughed, "I remember that old movie, I never realized that was the song he was singing. If you like English then I bet you'll like Mr. Lancer, he's the English teacher at Casper High, and I bet he'd love to know that you know of poems like that."

"I'll definitely have to meet him then."

"You most likely will if you go to Casper this year, he teaches just about every English class, and he's the Vice Principal," Jazz looked down at her watch then stood up, "I have to go though, there's an English workshop I'm going to at the library."

Henry rested her chin in her palm, "I wish I could go, sounds like fun, especially if you guys will be talking about the Jabberwocky and other poetry, but I'm meeting with Danny today," she said excitedly.

"Well, you'll probably have to wait a bit longer, he usually doesn't get up until ten or so," Jazz packed her bag and swung it over her shoulder, "so you might be waiting for a while."

That didn't really seem to bother her, "That's ok," she poked at the bowl Jazz had been eating from, "I can just hang out with your parents and get to know them."

Jazz stiffened slightly as she reached down to grab her bowl to drop it off in the sink, "Yeah, about that. Well, you see, our parents are a little … eccentric sometimes, and they've got this obsession with ghosts, but don't let that frighten you off."

The smaller teen intertwined her thumbs patiently and smiled, "I'm not worried, eccentric people don't bother me, I find them fascinating and the most fun to be around. It's never a boring day with them."

Jazz raised an eyebrow, "Ok, but I'm just going to warn you, sometimes they—"

"GHOST!" Jack burst back into the room, wielding some sort of ecto-foaming gun and sprayed the room.

The older teen was showered in the burst, the younger barely managed to duck under the table. Foam dripped from the ceiling and the cabinets, coloring the room a lime, slightly glowing shade.

"—Do that," Jazz finished and spit goop out of her mouth.

Henry peeked up cautiously over the table, "Wow! That was so cool!"

A lady popped up the stairs next to Jack, the teen could only guess that was Danny's mother.

"Jack honey, there are no ghosts up here," she said in a somewhat unamused tone.

Jack looked around the room, "That's odd, my specter detector said that there was a ghost up here," he looked down at a strange piece of equipment.

"That thing looks cool, may I see it?" Henry got up from her seat and approached cautiously.

"Certainly," Jack said as he handed the device to her, "it's obviously broken so you can keep it if you want."

"Cool!" Henry studied the article in amazement.

Jazz had finished brushing the goo off her clothes, "I'm heading out, try not to destroy the rest of the house," she leaned in and whispered to the smaller girl, "have fun and be careful," and she hurried out the door.

"Um, and who might you be my dear?" the older woman finally noticed Henry.

"Oh, Maddie, this is Henry, Danny's new friend. Henry, this is my wife Maddie." Jack said as he jiggled a couple knobs on his foaming gun.

"It's nice to meet you miss, um, Henry?" Maddie looked at her questioningly.

Henry knew that look all too well, "It's short for Henrietta, my full name is Henrietta Cooper."

"My what an interesting name," Maddie beamed politely.

"I think I got it!" Jack pulled the trigger on his gun, coating the room with another layer of the green goop.

…

The scruffy teen had offered to help clean up the mess in the kitchen, it didn't take too long, it washed right off, the hard part was trying to get it all in the dumpster around back in the alley. After everything was cleaned up, Maddie made Henry eggs, bacon and Fenton toast for breakfast, which the teen graciously accepted. She tried to be polite and mind her manners, but it had been such a long time since she'd had a nice meal. Why the smell of breakfast cooking didn't wake Danny up was beyond her.

After she finished her toast she looked up at a hanging clock, it read 10:42, "Does Danny always sleep in like this?"

"Sometimes, usually during the summer," Maddie said as she washed dishes she cooked with.

Henry stood up and brought the mother her dishes, which she had practically licked clean, "Thank you for breakfast Mrs. Fenton, it was delicious."

"You are very welcome sweetie," she said as she washed the dishes Henry had just given her.

The teen was anxious, she wanted to hang out with her new friend, but he was still sleeping. She leaned back to glance out of the kitchen and saw the staircase, probably where his room was, "Would it be ok if I go wake him up?"

"Sure thing dear, I have a few things I'd like him to do before the day is wasted any further. Upstairs, second door on the right."

Henry went to dash up the stairs, but stopped momentarily and saw a blue blanket draped over the couch, she chuckled wickedly, snatch it up along with the specter detector Jack had given her and ran up the stairs.

When she got to the top, she slowed to creep silently down the hall. She found the door that led to Danny's room, quietly turned the knob and opened it. Henry peeked cautiously inside and could hear him lightly snoring in the bed close to the window. To keep from laughing, she clasped her hand tightly over her mouth. She waited until she was sure she'd be able to mostly control her laughter, then got down on her hands and knees and silently crawled across the floor to the foot of his bed.

Danny snorted slightly and rolled over, Henry could barely contain laughter. She calmed down and stood up, throwing the blanket over top herself and kicked the foot board just enough to get his attention. She couldn't see him through the blanket but could hear him stirring.

He jolting awake and rubbed his eyes so he could see what hit his bed.

"_BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_" Henry moaned loudly, her arms stretched out as if to grab Danny.

Danny shouted from being startled but regained himself and fired an ecto-blast at the creature, sending it flying across the room. It hit the wall and fell to the floor. Danny was half way between going ghost when he heard the being under the blanket speak.

"Ow Danny! That hurt!" Henry struggled under the blanket to free herself.

Upon realizing who it was, he changed to his human form just before she pulled the blanket off her head. _Did she see me?_ he thought briefly.

"Oh my gosh! Henry, are you ok?" he was about to get out of bed to help her up, but he realized he was still just in boxers so he didn't dare move from the protection of his sheets.

Henry rubbed the back of her head, "Yeah, but you didn't have to kick me so hard!"

_Oh good, she just thinks I kicked her_, he breathed a sigh of relief, _Wait, kicking is still bad_, "I'm so sorry, I didn't know that was you."

The scruffy teen stood up and wrapped the blanket around herself playfully as if forgetting what happened, "So," she hopped up on Danny's bed, sitting cross-legged facing him, "Your family is really interesting."

Danny blushed and scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, uh, sorry about that, I hope they didn't scare you."

"Are you kidding?" she sat up enthusiastically, "They are tons of fun! I talked to your sister about poetry and almost got shot with green goo, and they made breakfast. By the way, you missed breakfast, it was bacon and eggs."

"Aw man," Danny groaned, he liked bacon and eggs.

"Oh, and your dad gave me this," she pulled the device out of her large hoodie pocket.

Danny flinched, "Uh, is that the specter detector?"

"Yeah," she rolled the device in her hands, "but your dad says it doesn't work."

The gadget sprang to life when she accidentally pointed it at Danny: _I am a ghost, fear me_.

They both jumped in surprise, Henry marveled over it, Danny was worried it would give away his identity. Henry pointed it at herself and it fell silent, then pointed it back at Danny and it spoke again.

She laughed, "Yeah it must be broken," Danny mentally sighed as Henry continued, "If it worked it would have buzzed the second it touched me."

Danny was confused; she couldn't be a ghost, his ghost sense never went off around her. The teen girl must have sensed his confusion, she giggled and leaned in to whisper, "Sometimes I pretend my grandparents' spirits follow me and look after me," she leaned back and laughed, "but this thing would have sensed them. So they either aren't here right now or I've gone mad. Either way is fine with me," she smiled, "Ghosts are spirits of the dead that are bound to this world by unfinished business, right?"

"Uh, sure," Danny decided that was the best answer at the moment.

Henry jumped up and started bouncing on the bed, twirling with each bounce, "So what are we gonna do today?"

Danny laughed awkwardly, "Well, first you can let me get dressed."

The excited girl looked down and finally realized he wasn't clothed, "Oh right!" she threw the blanket back over her head, "I see nothing! Nothing!"

Henry jumped off the bed and ran for the door, the blanket covered her eyes and she missed the door and ran into the wall with a loud thud. She fell back to the floor but instantly jumped up and maneuvered her way around the door and ran down the hallway, shouting _BOOO!_ on the way down the stairs. Danny heard faintly what happened next from downstairs.

"GHOST!" Jack yelled as he saw Henry run by under the blanket.

"Wait Jack No!" Maddie yelled only moments too late.

Henry was unable to dodge this shot of foam, but was mostly covered by the blanket so she didn't get too messy. She stood still and let the blanket slide off her head and hang around her shoulders.

"Oh no! Henry honey, are you alright?" Maddie rushed forward.

"That was awesome!" Henry exclaimed, throwing her hands above her head and bouncing between her two feet in excitement.

Danny smacked his forehead with his palm, "Oh boy, this is going to be an interesting day."

…

End Chapter 2

…

Yay! I'm on a roll! Plz R&R as always, input is welcomed. ^^


	3. Chores

Continuing on with my revamp, here is chapter 3!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, if I did then I wouldn't have canceled it, and since it got canceled it means I don't own it. Please don't sue or take offense to the previous sentence.

…

Chapter 3: Chores

…

After his enthusiastic wake up call, Danny had rolled out of bed and decided to take a shower. He didn't particularly feel like being all stinking and messy in front of his new friend; even though she might not mind, he did. It wasn't because it was a girl right? She seemed so excited to hang out today, but he wasn't sure what they could do. Go to the Nasty Burger? Show her around town? Take her to a movie? Go to the arcade? Go ghost hunting?

He flinched at that thought; if she was going to be a friend, or maybe a close friend, she'd find out he was a ghost one way or another. This probably wasn't the best day to introduce her to ghost hunting and his ghost half so soon, for one that would be too overwhelming for her first day, and second he wasn't even sure if she'd accept the thought of her friend being a ghost. But she did seem to believe in ghosts, or at least liked the concept of ghosts, so maybe she'd be ok with it.

Danny was in the middle of shampooing his raven-black hair when suddenly the water went boiling hot. He shouted and backed as far away from the stream of water that scalded him as he could into the corner of the shower. Then it went back to warm that he had set it at before. Cautiously, the teen poked a foot underneath to make sure the water was safe. Deciding it was all right, he ducked back under the stream to rinse out the shampoo. Suddenly the water went hot again, he shouted again and jumped out of the way, what was going on?

"Hurry up, Danny!" he heard Henry call from downstairs, "you've got stuff to do before we can hang out!"

It was then he realized it was likely her in the kitchen, turning the water on and off, "Knock it off! I _am_ hurrying!" he yelled down to her.

He didn't hear a response and decided it was best to just finish up, but not before she turned the water on and scalded him again, causing him to shout in pain, "_STOP THAT_!"

…

The teen ghost finished his shower quickly and hastily jumped out before Henry could turn the water on again. He chose his usual white T-shirt and blue jeans, not really much else to chose from. He was just finishing pulling up his pants as he walked out of his room and heard hustling and bustling in the front room, he assumed it was his parents.

When Danny reached the bottom of the stairs, he peaked around the corner into the kitchen. His parents rushed about, loading up ghost gear in into bags and preparing the RV. His friend sat at the table watching them as the rushed around, it looked as if they'd cleaned off the ecto-foam his dad had sprayed her with.

"Uh, mom? Dad?" he raised an eyebrow, "are we going somewhere?"

Maddie paused momentarily, "Someone just called and had a tip of a ghost town of town! Your father and I are running to go see if we can catch it."

"Yes Danny," Jack fiddled with another strange gadget, "we need to get out there before we lose it!"

This whole time, the scruffy teen marveled at the spectacle, she'd never witnessed anything like this, "If you catch it, can I see it? I've always wanted to see or even meet a ghost!"

Danny laughed awkwardly, _She has no clue._

Maddie stopped to look at Danny, a serious tone in her voice, "Now dear, I know you and Henry are excited to hang out today, but I need you to do a couple things before you go anywhere."

"Really?" Danny hung his shoulders slightly, "Great, what do you need me to do? Scrub the toilet? Mop the ceiling? Chase the cockroaches out from under the fridge?"

The teen girl put a hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle.

"No, but those would be nice too," Maddie shook a finger at him, "I need you to clean up your clothes that have been fermenting in the laundry room and haven't been washed, I don't even know if you have clean underwear with that pile."

Henry failed to hold back a small chuckle, Danny blushed bright red, "Uh, is that all?"

"No," his mother continued, "I also need you to take out the trash, vacuum the carpet, and sweep and mop the kitchen."

"Oh, and don't forget, we need you to clean the ghost lab too," Jack poked his head back in the room, "everything has been covered in ectoplasm residue ever since the explosion with the ecto-ghost-getter."

Danny flinched, "Uh, the ghost lab?" he glanced over at Henry.

"You have a ghost lab?" she turned to him and exclaimed, "Can I see? Can I see?"

Danny's parents looked at her for a moment, Jack spoke up as he scratched his chin, "Well, I suppose it probably wouldn't be a good idea to have someone we don't know much about down with all that equipment …"

"I'll be really good," she begged with her palms pressed together, "I promise I won't touch anything, and Danny can make sure of that, I just want to see, I promise I won't mess with anything. Please? Please?"

"Well, I'm convinced!" he said with his normal over-the-top excited tone, "but Maddie! We have to head out before we lose that ghost!" Jack snapped back to the task at hand.

Maddie kissed Danny's forehead, "Please be sure the chores are done before we get back dear," she left with her husband and slammed the door a bit too hard in her excitement.

Both teens stood still for a moment, taking in what just happened, then Danny glanced over at his friend, "Well, guess we'll have to wait a bit longer to hang out."

"Nonsense!" Henry lightly pounded her fist against her other palm, "We can hang out while we clean, it'll be fun! And it'll make it go by much faster until we can actually hang out."

Danny raised an eyebrow, "Uh, you don't have to help or anything," he thought about his ghost powers and how much faster clean up would be if Henry wasn't there.

The scruffy teen skipped lightly to the front room, her hands behind her back and then peeked back over her shoulder, "What are friends for, right?" she paused and muttered to herself, "_Is_ that what friends are for?"

The raven-haired teen studied her for a moment, "How come you're so cheerful today?"

Henry stopped and turned to face him, "Because I'm hanging out with friends," she smiled warmly, "I actually _have _friends now."

Danny looked questioningly at her, _What does she mean by that?_ Henry suddenly became self-conscious about his staring, she turn away and blushed.

"So, where is the broom? I can get started on the kitchen," she walked back toward said kitchen.

Danny shook himself, "Uh, in the pantry, the mop and dust pan are in there too."

"All righty," she grinned happily, "we better get started right away."

The teen boy sighed and mumbled under his breath, "This is going to take forever."

Henry barely caught that, "No it won't," she turned back to face him, a big smile on her face, "just whistle while you work."

…

Henry was a lot faster at cleaning than Danny initially thought. He was half way through vacuuming the front room just as the redhead was drying the floor with a couple rags. _She swept and mopped that quickly?_ he thought to himself, _Man, maybe whistling while you work really does help_. He quietly started whistling an unknown song.

"See? There you go!" Henry had just stepped in, "Now we can really get started."

Danny shrugged, "All we really need to do is take out the trash and do laundry."

"And clean the ghost lab," she squirmed in excitement.

"Um, we'll save that for last, okay?" he really didn't want her going down there, so he stalled as long as he could.

"Okay," the teen girl chirped, "I'll start gathering up clutter," she grabbed a big black trash bag and ran up the stairs, "maybe you can work on your laundry after you finish vacuuming. Better do it before I see all you're underwear!" she giggled devilishly.

The teen boy's eyes widened and he blushed; he turned on the vacuum and whistled more vigorously. He didn't really want a girl seeing his underwear, let alone the smell of "fermenting" clothes.

…

Henry had gathered up all the garbage scattered on the floor and in each room's wastebaskets. She slid down the railing as she went to gather up the garbage from the kitchen, it was a big can. After she had finished, she mentally went over which room's she had gone through, and realized she missed one; she froze. The thought in her head beckoned, but she needed to make sure she would have permission before attempting it.

Finding the laundry wasn't too hard, just follow the sound of a rattling machine and Danny growling in frustration. The redhead peeked around the corner; Danny was stuffing clothes into the overflowing washing machine, shouting angrily at it. She watched the scene for a few minutes then laughed to get his attention.

"You can't force all that in there, you're practically raping that machine."

The struggling teen looked up at her, "But I've still got so much to do, unless I pack it like this there's still—wait, what did you say?" he paused with a blush.

Henry laughed again, "What? You're forcing something on it that it doesn't want. You're gonna break the machine and have to hand wash it all if you do that, " she stepped forward, "Here, let me help you with that."

Danny blushed, "Uh, no, I'm ok! I got it!"

She sighed and rolled up her sleeves, "I promise I won't look," she closed her eyes and felt her way to the washer.

"No! No! I got it!"

Too late, Henry was elbow deep in dirty clothes, feeling around to loosen them enough to dislodge them. She reached both arms in the pick up and large pile of wet clothes. Danny didn't know what to do now, she already had an armful of his laundry, he didn't really have anymore of a choice.

"Do you have a basket? I can't see where one is," she turned in his direction, keeping her promise about closing her eyes.

Danny stuttered momentarily and searched the room, and found one on the floor behind him. He maneuvered it over to her, "Ok, now drop it straight down—"

She did, and it landed with a heavy splash, soaking Danny's face with water and soap. He sputtered and wiped his face, "You didn't have to do that!"

"Do what?" Henry felt through the washing machine again to loosen the clothes a bit more to allow water to flow through them evenly and dropped the lid over it when she was satisfied, "That should do it, wanna guide me out of the room so I can see again?" she reached her hands toward him like a toddler trying to find mommy.

The raven-haired teen grabbed her hands and led her out of the laundry room, quickly closing the door behind them. _That was slightly embarrassing_, he thought to himself.

Henry opened her eyes and grinned at him, "See? That wasn't so bad."

"Speak for yourself," he said through grit teeth.

She frowned at him, "I wash Ben, Tommy, _and_ Uncle Rege's underwear, and Uncle Rege likes to beat off in his at night. You're laundry is just fine."

Danny stiffened and blushed red as a tomato. Was that supposed to be a relief or just disturbing?

"Oh! And I found this laying on your floor," she pulled the Fenton thermos out of her hoodie pocket, "I think there may have been some food still left in there, it kinda stinks."

Danny gasped and snatched it away quickly, "Thank you!" he squeaked. He was just glad he had put all the ghosts he'd caught back in the ghost zone last night, which was why he'd slept in so late.

The redhead decided to change the subject back to what she was really going to ask him, "Anyway," she put her hands behind her back and shuffled her feet, "I finished picking up trash from the rest of the house, but I haven't gone down to the ghost lab to clean yet. I figured I'd ask your permission before I did."

He widened his eyes slightly; he _really_ didn't want to take her down to the ghost lab, she just wasn't ready for it, and Danny highly doubted she'd be able to keep her hands to herself, especially after the laundry incident.

"Uh, why don't I call Sam and Tucker?" he shrugged sheepishly, "we can hang out with them here now that the rest of the chores are done, and we can take care of the ghost lab later."

"Ok!" Henry smiled as if she had forgotten about going down there. She swung the large garbage bag over her shoulder, "I'll run this out to the dumpster then."

Henry ran out the front door, Danny breathed a sigh of relief, _At least she is easy to distract._ Just then, he heard a loud crash outside and Henry shout, "_Crap in a hat_!"

_Oh boy_, he thought as he dashed out to see what had happened, and deeply regretted it. The overstuffed bag had torn all the way down the sidewalk around to the dumpster in back, Henry stood half in shock of what she had done, she looked up at Danny and simply said, "Oops."

…

They had cleaned all the trash that was scattered across the sidewalk and alley, every now and then a passer-by stopped to stare at what was going on. Danny helped heave the large bag into the dumpster this time; it was better that two people helped rather than one struggled again, plus he didn't want to risk another clean up.

As the duo headed back inside, Danny checked his watch; 11:23? Wow, that really didn't take that long, and most of which was when he woke up and had his shower. He idly wondered if Sam and Tucker would even be awake after a late night of ghost hunting too, he knew if he hadn't been woken up he probably would still be asleep.

"So why don't you call Sam and Tucker over? I can't wait to see them again too," Henry rocked back and forth on her feet.

It was as if she was reading his mind or something, "I don't know if they're awake, we uh, stayed up really late chatting on instant messenger."

She cocked her head to the side, "Instant messenger? … Oh wait? Is it like sending mail in the mail box but instead on a computer?"

_So she knows about poetry and some supernatural stuff, but not much about IM?_ He thought with a raised eyebrow, _Has she ever even owned a computer?_

Henry seemed to read his mind again, "We never really owned a computer growing up. Grandma and Grandpa were very traditional, and most of the rest of my family either thought I was too young for it or were too poor to afford it."

Danny was a bit confused that she got it right twice, he had to test it again, _Applesauce and uh corn chips.._. He mentally breathed a sigh of relief; she wasn't psychic or anything, maybe he was just easy to read.

"So," Henry looked up at some unseen object with her hands behind her back, "we've got nothing else we need to do, so what should we do now?" she was obviously hinting at you-know-what.

_She isn't gonna give it up, is she?_ the teen boy thought to himself, _Dad shouldn't have even mentioned it in front of her, let alone given her permission_.

"All right," he consented, "We don't know when my mom and dad will be back anyway, so we should probably get the ghost lab cleaned up or I'll get in trouble."

"Yay!" she said with a big smile, "I promise to behave, I won't touch a thing, the FBI wouldn't even be able to find finger prints."

Danny contemplated in his head, "Well then, I'm definitely holding you to that promise, unlike the laundry incident …" he hinted in return.

"Hey, I didn't even look!" the teen girl defended herself, "I'll even do this," she pulled her jean pockets inside out to show him there was nothing in them, then stuffed her hands firmly in said pockets, "and this is where they're gonna stay the whole time."

He raised an eyebrow, "All right, make sure you keep them there the whole time, ok?"

"Yes sir!" she saluted, and then realized she had taken her hand out of her pocket and stuffed it quickly back.

Danny still wasn't quite sure, but he decided he would watch her like a hawk, and began to lead her down the stairs to the ghost lab, _I hope this is will go smoothly_ …

"Wow! This is so cool!" Henry looked around in absolute awe at the room.

Danny was just so used to it that it wasn't anything new.

The teen girl stopped momentarily, "Is any of this stuff toxic?"

He raised an eyebrow, "You got sprayed with the ecto-foamer how many times and _now_ you're worried about being toxic?"

"Hehehe, I guess you're right," she rocked back and forth on her feet bashfully.

Danny sighed and looked about the room, green goo coated nearly every bit of equipment. _This is gonna take a while_, he groaned inwardly. He picked up a rag and decided to start from one side of the room and work to the other.

Henry peeked over his shoulder, still keeping her promise to keep her hands in her pockets, "Are you sure I can't help clean up? I could sweep maybe, that's not touching anything."

_A little help would be nice_, he contemplated, "Well, I guess sweeping is ok, but just sweep the floor, I've got the rest."

"Ok!" she chimed and ran back upstairs to grab the broom.

The raven-haired teen sighed again and set to work, polishing some gadget that was something he hadn't seen before that his parents were likely working on. Just then, he gasped and blue mist wafted from his mouth. _Dang it!_ he thought and turned about the room to see what had set off his ghost sense.

Suddenly, two large hands reached from the ghost portal and grabbed him, squeezing tight enough that he felt like his bones were going to crack. Danny squirmed and two rings formed around his waist and slid across his body, revealing his ghost side. His eyes glowed green in anger as he faced the unknown being still partway in the ghost zone. It looked like a giant zombie or skeleton, the creature was large enough that its' hands alone could immobilize the teen ghost.

But Danny was no stranger to fighting ghosts; he encompassed his body with ice to shatter the hands that held him, allowing him to escape momentarily. The zombie ghost wailed in pain, only to moments later laugh wicked as its' hands rematerialized for round two. It swiped and slashed wildly at him, then made a high-pitched shriek that caused Danny to cover his ears with his hands. The zombie ghost took the opportunity to smash a palm down on the ghost boy, pinning him on his back to the floor.

"I found the broom! What was that noise?" Henry called from upstairs.

He gasped as he heard her descending the staircase, and quickly turned back into his human self before she could see him. When the teen girl entered the lab, she saw the enormous creature pinning her friend down, she screamed in a mixture of fear and surprise, dropping the broom and dust pan in her hands to cover her mouth.

Danny looked up at her, "Run Henry! Get out of here!"

"N-no! I won't leave you!" she trembled.

"I'll be ok, but I need you to go!" he growled, doing his best not to give away his intention.

The ghost laughed and glared down at him, raising his other hand to deliver a fatal blow. Danny fought the urge to go ghost in front of his new friend; he could likely defeat the ghost with ease as a ghost himself.

Suddenly, a beam from an ecto-plasmic blast fired at the zombie ghost, knocking it back a bit, while also releasing its' hold on Danny. The teen rolled out of the way to look behind him at what had fired the blast. Henry stood next to one of the counters, an oversized ecto-cannon resting on her shoulder as she aimed it at the enemy.

"You leave my friend alone, you monster!" she shouted and fired another strong blast, this time in a continuous stream.

Danny ducked down to stay out of the line of fire as the cannon slowly blew the ghost back through the portal. He was shocked and quite surprised at what his new friend was doing, he snapped out of it and ran back to the side of the portal, and as the ghost was finally blasted all the way back into the ghost zone, wailing and snarling, he quickly shut and locked the portal, thinking to himself how he probably should have closed it in the first place.

He turned again to face Henry, the cannon still planted firmly against her shoulder, panting from the slight adrenaline rush.

She dropped the cannon and rushed forward to him, "Oh my gosh! Danny, are you ok? Did that thing hurt you?" she patted his face, shoulders, and chest to make sure he was all there.

He blushed slightly, "I'm fine, it didn't bang me up much," he stared at her in shock, "that was really brave Henry, thank you."

"Well, I didn't want to lose a new friend now, did I?" she said matter-of-factly, "but I'm sorry I broke my promise." Danny looked at her questioningly and she continued, "I touched something in the lab when I specifically said I wouldn't, I'm sorry," her shoulders hung slightly as she looked down and fiddled with her hands.

The teen boy laughed, "Well, I think I can forgive you this time," he said with a smile, "thanks again for the help."

Henry flashed a big smile, "Isn't that what friends are for?" she suddenly became serious, "I _just made_ friends, I don't want to lose _any_ of them."

Both teens blushed and turned away, "Uh, maybe we should get back to work," Danny said softly.

There was a loud buzz that came from upstairs, "Washer's done!" she piped and ran up the stairs.

When the teen boy realized that meant she going to try to touch his laundry again, he dashed up after her, "Wait! It's ok, I got it!"

…

End Chapter 3

…

This hopefully set the initial story line, I've said it before, I'm no good at beginning stories, but I can go from about the middle onward. Anyway, as always, R+R, your input is very appreciated. :3


	4. Discovery

Chapter 4, hurray! Read and review as always. :3

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, so please don't sue me.

…

Chapter 4: Discovery

…

Danny beat Henry to the laundry room only with the help of his ghost abilities; she was faster than he expected. Somehow she couldn't figure out how he managed to pass her on the stairs and lock the laundry door before she could 'help' with his clothes again. The teen boy quickly unloaded the washer, transferred clothes into the dryer and reloaded a new batch into the washer. He supposed idly that she was helping him with his laundry more than he thought; he wouldn't have been doing it if he weren't hiding it from a girl.

_Ok_, he thought to himself,_ time to wake up Sam and Tucker_.

He left the laundry room and closed the door behind himself. Henry sat on the couch in the front room, likely pouting after he'd passed her up. She fidgeted in her seat, too anxious to sit still, "So, when is Sam and Tucker coming over?"

_Mind reader_, Danny thought, "I was actually just about to call them, wanna wait here for a minute while I call them?"

"Sure," she smiled and leaned back, folding her arms behind her head.

The raven-haired boy sighed and ran up to his room to find his cell phone. He hoped Henry would behave and sit on the couch until he came back; nonetheless he made haste digging through his room for his phone. Danny found it tangled in his sheets and began to dial Tucker. It rang for a bit before a groggy Tucker answered.

"Hello?" he heard a yawn at the other end.

"Hey Tucker, you awake yet?" Danny settled the phone against his shoulder as he fumbled through his sheets to absent-mindedly make his bed.

"Well, I am now," another yawn, "So, what's up?"

The teen raised an eyebrow, "Don't you remember what we're doing today?"

"Sleeping and recovering from ghost hunting last night?" hinting that he just wanted to go back to sleep.

"No, we were all gonna hang out today with Henry," _Did he seriously forget?_

There was a moment of silence on the other end, "Oh yeah! When is she coming over?"

"She's here already, she's been here for a while now. Can you get ready quick and head over? I don't know how long I can handle her by myself."

More silence, "Danny, what did you do?"

Danny suddenly realized how that sounded, "Wait! That's not what I meant! I mean she's pretty… 'rambunctious' … and I could really use some help keeping her under control."

"Again, what did you do?"

The teen growled, pinching the brim of his nose with his fingers, "I didn't do anything, just get over as soon as you can."

"Alright dude," Tucker yawned one more time, "I'll be over soon, see ya."

Danny hung up and dialed Sam; the conversation went just about the same with her as well. Did it really sound that bad? He sighed when he hung up with Sam and sat on his bed for a minute thinking about what to do today. Unable to think of anything to do, he decided to go back downstairs and ask Henry what she wanted to do.

Danny found her asleep on the couch.

…

A nap sounded like a good idea, so Danny had decided to lie down for one as well. He rested his head against the armrest closest to the door, Henry on the other side of the couch. It was a nice nap, but it felt too short, like he had just closed his eyes and seconds later the bell rang.

Henry sat straight up, "Door bell!" and she swiftly got up from her spot and went to the door, opening it with almost a bit too much enthusiasm, "Hi guys!" she piped when she saw Sam and Tucker on the porch.

The teen boy was barely rubbing the sleep from his eyes, not quite coherent. His two friends seemed almost as tired, but were fully alert after the loud greeting.

"Hi Henry," Sam smiled, "how are you doing today?"

"Super excited!" she bounced back and forth between her feet. She then padded over to Danny, pinched his cheeks and shook his head to wake him, "Time to get up sleepy head!"

"Argh! I'm awake," he growled sleepily, sitting up and stretching.

Tucker walked inside and looked around, "Dude, did you clean the house or something?"

"Yup," the redhead answered for Danny, "We swept and mopped the kitchen, took out the trash, vacuumed, and now we're just waiting for—"

There was another loud buzz, Danny jumped up and ran to the laundry room and shut the door behind him before Henry could even finish saying, "Dryer's done!"

Sam and Tucker stared at each other, both realizing what Danny had meant by not being able to handle her by himself. They watched Henry pout momentarily as Danny had one-upped her again. How long had she been there and how long has Danny been 'putting up' with her?

The teen girl walked to the laundry room door and knocked, "Don't forget to use a smaller load!"

"OK!" he shouted half from irritation, half from embarrassment.

"Well, one thing's for sure," Sam put her hands on her hips, "Danny sure gets his chores done faster with you here."

Henry giggled and but changed the subject, "So, what are we gonna do today?"

"Well, there's not much to do in this town," Tucker shrugged, "but we can find something."

"What do you mean not much to do?" the redhead folded her arms, "there's always plenty to do, it's just a matter of where you're looking."

"Now that's a positive attitude," Sam said, "but that doesn't answer the question; what do you want to do?"

"I dunno," Henry shuffled her feet, "I'd be perfectly fine if you just showed me around town, see the sites and hang out places and get to know my new home, or even just do nothing and get to know each other better if we're gonna be good friends."

"Sounds fine to me," Danny exited the laundry room after changing the new load of clothes, "I don't really feel like staying indoors anyway."

"Goodie!" the teen girl jumped up and clapped her hands, "Where to first?"

Sam raised an eyebrow, "Hmm, there's an arcade not too far if you wanna start there."

"Sure, why not?" she chirped, "Are we ready to go?"

"Uh, I guess," the raven-haired teen shrugged.

"All right then," she grabbed Danny's arm and pulled him out the door, snagging Tucker's arm in the process, "Let's get going! We've wasted enough of the day already!"

Danny leaned in and quietly whispered to Tucker, "Do you see what I mean now?"

…

"Aren't you hot in that hoodie?" Tucker commented as they walked, sweat started forming on his brow.

"Not too much," Henry skipped, "I'm usually always cold, which is why I always wear my hoodie. Plus I like the feeling of something on my arms, feels secure."

"Whatever floats your boat," Sam said, simmering as she walked behind.

"Or sinks it first," the redhead smiled back at her friend, then trailed off for a moment, "Are we there yet?"

"Almost," Danny said, "have you ever been to an arcade"

"Nope, what's it like?" she held her hands behind her back.

"Uh, you've never been to an arcade?" Sam pointed.

"No," Henry cocked her head to the side inquisitively, "what is it like?"

Tucker laughed, "It's a place people go to play video games and hang out. A lot of the games are those old-school games like Pac-man and Mortal Combat. I usually like the newer ones for the up-to-date consoles, I could play those for hours," Tucker laughed again.

"Sounds weird, why would you spend so much time playing games?" Henry folded her arms, "seems like a big waste of time to me."

She may as well have just stomped on Tucker's PDA, "What do you _mean_ 'waste of time'? Playing video games is way fun! You can level up your ranks, shoot people in the head, and be a troll or elf or anything you wanna be! What about video games is there not to like?"

Henry frowned and dawned the most serious expression the trio had seen from her yet, "Because you are spending time with an inanimate object that comes and goes and easily becomes out-of-date or breaks rather than with a person in real life and a friendship that can last forever. Video games can skew the perception of reality with the delusion of not being ones' true self, as if being so is too terrifying of a thought to handle and one must escape to a world of falsehood and fantasy in order to deal with life."

Danny stopped and stared at her, "Wait, what?"

"What's so wrong with video games? They're fun, enjoyable, and you can communicate with other users through the web with a headset! That _is_ spending time with someone!"

"But do you really need a video game in order to spend time with someone? Why not spend time with someone in real life while doing something more productive with your life? Like service to the community or completing a real life goal that can help you for your future, not something to quell temporary boredom. Boredom is easy to cure, but doing something so meaningless and rotting your brain is not something that I find appealing."

"Dude!" Tucker was getting red in the face, "Whoever doesn't like video games has got to be _CRAZY_!"

Henry stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him in somewhat shock, then bowed her head, turned around and started walking away in the opposite direction, "I don't want to go to the arcade anymore."

Sam chased after her, "Wait up Henry!"

Danny turned to the techno-geek and glared, "Nice going Tucker."

…

The mood had fallen slightly after the previous argument, for several minutes they just walked in silence, not sure what to say or where to go. Just when Danny was about to say something, Henry looked up suddenly and squealed in excitement.

"Play ground!" and she ran across the street.

Tucker leaned in to Danny, "Dude, does she have ADD or something?"

Danny shrugged, "I dunno, but it would kinda make sense, even though it is kinda funny once you get used to her mannerisms."

Henry skipped to the park and found monkey bars, a climbing cage, and other playground fixtures underneath the shade of a large tree. She giggled with glee and jumped up on the monkey bars, swinging and flipping like a gymnast from one bar to another as if they were parallel bars. Then she swung her feet on top of the bars into a standing position and balanced across them with her arms out.

"I love play grounds, they make me feel like a little kid," she jumped gracefully from the bars to the top of the climbing cage, looping her legs around the bars and swinging between them like a gibbon.

"Wow, I didn't know you were so … nimble," Sam said in surprise.

"My Aunt Barbara was a gym instructor, I'd go and practice on the course and stretch my muscles at her gym when she couldn't find a babysitter, so I learned a few things," Henry smiled as she hung upside down, "Play grounds are good exercise and help with flexibility and agility."

"So," Tucker was still pouting, "you'd rather be doing this than playing video games." It was a statement, not a question.

Henry pushed herself up into a handstand at the top of the climbing cage and walked down each bar on her hands, "Yup, because this is good for my health, and helps with cardio if I need to out run Uncle Rege's truck."

They all stopped, "Huh?" None of them could tell if she was joking or not.

Henry was about to speak again, when she looked as if she had just beheld the Holy Grail, "They have a tire swing!"

The redhead jumped down the climbing cage from her hands and made a beeline for the precious tire swing that hung from a thick, sturdy branch. She jumped up on top of the tire, the momentum causing it to swing wildly back and forth. Gripping the rope, she leaned back to feel the wind against her face.

"It's been so many years," Henry reminisced over it, "my grandparents had a tire swing hanging from the weeping willow tree in the front yard. I'd just swing all day, counting leaves and branches and bugs and looking for shapes in clouds," she frowned for a moment, "I miss my grandparents."

"You talk about your grandparents a lot," Danny sat against the roots of the tree, "sounds like they were really important to you."

"Yeah, but in the end it was best for them to move on," Henry hung upside down, her ankles wrapped securely by the rope.

"Oh, what happened?" Sam said awkwardly.

"One day they just went mad, Grandpa hung himself in the closet, Grandma slit her wrists in the bathroom," Henry said casually.

The trio just stared at her, mortified at what she'd just told them and how easily she'd been able to say it. It brought about so many questions about where she'd lived before and after the incident.

The redhead looked at them, and as if reading their minds said, "Do you want to know how I came to live with my grandparents and my other relatives?"

"Actually, yes," Tucker sat cross-legged in the grass, intent on listening, "how'd you know?"

"I've just learned how to read people over the years, helps me figure out if someone is lying or something," Henry sat up on the tire swing, it swayed slowly as she began to speak, "But, it's kind of a long story."

"Well, we've got plenty of time, " Danny leaned back and put his hands behind his head, "besides, it'll help us get to know you better."

Henry leaned back, "I guess the best place to start is with my parents. My dad was shot down in Korea before I was born, my mom died from an abscessed uterus when I was born, doctors were amazed that I even survived. After that, I went to live with my grandparents Jonny and Linda Cooper, being the next closest relatives, and they were the ones that gave me the name Henrietta Cooper. Grandma was an English teacher, so I learned to read novels like Moby Dick and To Kill a Mocking Bird by age seven, and I learned the proper use of the English language, like my lack of contractions when I'm serious or angry. Grandpa was a band instructor as well as a vocal coach on the side, he taught me to play his violin and sing opera.

"They then went mad on my ninth birthday and committed suicide; I don't like my birthday anymore. After that I went to live with Aunt Barbara, the gym instructor, where I stayed for two years before she died from Malaria. The next relative to inherit me was Uncle Ash and his wife Bobby Joe on their farm with my cousin Scotty for about a year. Scotty was a jock, played just about every sport and picked on me mercilessly for being small; I can't stand bullies.

"Shortly after, the farm burned down, killing all three of them. The police found it odd that I survived. My Aunt Cheryl and her wife Shelly took me in after that for about two years. Cheryl was a mathematician college professor and I sat in on several lectures. Shelly was a psychologist and studied the occult and macabre and its' effects on the mind of the average individual, hence my fascination with spirits and supernatural phenomenon, I still have the book she gave me of the ABC's of dead children. One morning I woke up to gunshots, ran downstairs and found them shot dead in the kitchen, killed by homophobic extremists while making breakfast. Finally the only relative I had left was Uncle Rege with my cousins Ben and Tommy and I have been living with them ever since. And now, here I am, hanging out with the only friends I've ever had."

Sam stared at her, "That's horrible!"

The redhead raised an eyebrow, "Horrible that I'm hanging out with friends?"

"No, I mean about your relatives. They all died and most of them seemed like good people with respectable careers and didn't deserve an early death."

Henry shrugged, "My grandma used to tell me, 'Even angels deserve to die,' so in a sense, maybe they were like angels. If it's their time, then it's their time, even if it was under strange circumstances."

Danny sat with his jaw dropped, "Wow, it's amazing the way you turned out after all that."

"What do you mean?" she leaned back to look at him.

"I mean, having such a positive outlook after all the tragedy you experienced," he leaned forward, resting his chin in his palm.

"Well, that all depends on how you look at it. I learned a lot of valuable skills by being passed on to other relatives and have learned that death isn't that horrible of a necessity to life. Plus it's easier to smile and be happy than it is to frown and be miserable."

"Dude! You're like a philosopher!" Tucker exclaimed.

"Not really, just someone who has experienced a lot in such a short life. Anyway, now that you've heard about my life story, I want to hear your life stories," Henry looped herself through the center hole of the tire swing to look upside down at Danny, who was still sitting behind her, "so, what's _your_ life story?"

Danny blushed and laughed. He was about to say something when he gasped and blue smoke wafted from his mouth.

Henry blinked in confusion, "What was that?"

…

After Danny's ghost sense had gone off, he looked wildly around to find the source of said sense. Henry had witnessed his ghost breath and was very confused.

"What was that Danny? Did you burp blue or something? What did you eat to do that? I wanna try it."

"It's a long story that I can tell you later, but right now I need you to—"

Two large, somewhat familiar ghost hands burst from under ground, tearing a hole in the ground and snatching the scruffy teen. She squealed in surprise as she was lurched upward and then plowed through the playground, a large fissure torn in the dirt.

"Henry!" Danny shouted, "Hang on, we'll save you!"

"Go back to the ghost lab and get that cannon thing!" she shouted over the sound of a loud, high-pitched screech.

The ghost crawled out from the ground; it was the same zombie ghost that had attacked them in the ghost lab. _I thought I locked the portal_, Danny thought briefly, but this wasn't exactly the time to think of that, he needed to save his friend. But he needed to do so without revealing his ghost side to her, she still wasn't ready to see that Danny Phantom was Danny Fenton.

"Uh, right, I'll run home and get that cannon!" Danny faked, and pretended to run down the street to his house.

Tucker was confused, "Why doesn't he just go ghost and fight that thing?"

Sam elbowed him, "Sh! Henry probably doesn't know Danny is half ghost," she spoke quietly to him as the zombie ghost let out another shriek loud enough to drown out their voices from Henry's ears.

The raven-haired teen reached an alley not far and ducked into it, checking to make sure no one was watching, and blue rings formed at his waist to reveal his ghost side. He flew swiftly back to where the ghost attacking, the redhead still in its' clutches.

"Put me down or I'll bash your face!" she shouted angry and kicked feebly at the zombie ghost's face.

It just laughed and raised her high in the air and threw her across the park toward the buildings on the other side of the street, the scruffy teen pinched her eyes shut and screamed. Just before she smashed into the wall, a pair of strong arms caught her and saved her. She looked up and saw a strange boy with white hair and a black jumpsuit. _Who the heck is this?_ she thought as he lowered her gently to the street.

Danny set her down on the pavement, "I need you to stay right here while I take care of this ghost," and he flew off toward the monster.

Henry just stared at him for a moment, not sure what to make of this boy who caught her, _is he ghost too? Is he a bad guy like the other ghost?_ Then other thoughts flashed through her mind; _is he a dead spirit? Isn't that what ghosts are?_

The ghost boy flew at the zombie ghost and delivered a powerful punch to it's face, knocking it completely out of the ground, revealing that it didn't have legs and was in fact just a zombie-ghost-skeleton torso.

"Well, that's kinda creepy," Sam commented, then turned to Tucker, "Do you by any chance have the thermos?"

"No," Tucker was still watching the ghost battle.

The Goth looked at him angrily, "Well, Danny's house isn't too far, I'll run there and grab it," she shouted and took off.

Danny shot an ectoplasmic blast at the ghost, knocking it back toward Henry. Fortunately she had good reflexes and quickly dodged out of the way before it could crush her. The ghost shrieked angrily at the halfa that assaulted him, and lurched forward, using it's arms to crawl swiftly across the ground. It was much faster than Danny anticipated and he barely managed to get out of the way of the monster, but was caught and slashed by one of it's hands.

The ghost boy flew backward and hit the ground, but instantly recovered, "Ok, looks like ectoplasmic blasts are useless on this ghost, but let's see if ice blasts are more effective," he flew forward again with a new strategy of attack. He fired several ice blasts rapidly like a machine gun, but to not avail, as the ghost regenerated after each shot.

Tucker was practically useless, too slow to run to Danny's house for any weapons, and didn't even have any weapons on him. He didn't really like that feeling, but he couldn't really do anything about it. Henry felt the same way. Besides dodging the ghost, she hadn't moved or done anything since the ghost boy told her not to move; she was perfectly ok with that at the moment, _Where is Danny with that big cannon thing? And where did Sam go?_ Almost instantly after she had that thought, Sam came running back from down the street, the Fenton thermos in her hands.

The scruffy teen was very confused, "This is no time for a snack!"

"It's not for food," Sam stated, "It catches ghosts!"

"Uh, what? With rotten food smell?"

Suddenly, Tucker had an idea, "Dude! Try shooting it in the head! If it really _is_ a zombie then that should take him out!" he called with his hands cupped around his mouth to amplify his over another shriek.

It made a little bit of sense, he realized he hadn't blasted at its' head, maybe that would work, "It's worth a shot," he said to himself.

He shot an ice blast at the zombie's head; when its' head froze, it instantly stopped moving, enough time for Danny to deliver a powerful roundhouse kick, shattering it's head. It slumped forward; Danny wasn't sure if he'd killed it or if was just immobilized. Nonetheless, it was out long enough for Sam to use the thermos to trap the ghost.

The ghost boy sighed, "Well, that was interesting, I'm gonna go change back," as he flew back to the alley he initially changed in.

Henry snapped out of it and dashed after him unnoticed; she had so many things to ask him, as well as thank him for saving her. She turned the corner, "Hey! I just wanted to—"

She saw him change from his white-haired ghost form to his black-haired human form.

…

Danny brushed his clothes off, satisfied after the battle. He then heard a scream and turned around to see Henry, her hands clasped over her mouth in shock, her eyes wide with fear and confusion.

The raven-haired teen stopped and stared at her, almost equally mortified that he'd been found out, he put his hands up in somewhat self-defense, "Now hold on Henry, I can explain everything."

She began to back away slowly, _Does that mean … he's dead?_ Tears formed at the corners of her eyes. Then she took off running down the street, not exactly sure where she was going.

_Oh great_, Danny thought to himself. He decided turning back to his ghost self was best; it would be easier to fly after her without being seen as his other self. He flew up to exit the alley, and looked around to see Henry almost a block down the street, _Wow she's fast,_ he thought as he sped after her.

Henry turned to look over her shoulder to see if he was following, he was, and she began to panic. She veered off into another alleyway, jumped over the wooden fence and ran across the street to an adjacent alley. There were some fire escape stairs, as well as a dumpster across the way; the nimble teen jumped on top of the dumpster in one bound, then over to the fire escape stairs and swiftly climbed them.

Danny arrived down the street she had been at and watched her acrobatics; _Guess that playground stuff really works_, as he turned the corner, "Henry! Please wait!" he shouted to her.

That only spurred her to go faster. She began jumping from rooftop to rooftop; Danny swore he could see dents where her feet came into contact. He decided to pick up his pace, there was no way he'd let her outrun his flying, he thought he'd have the advantage. Again, Henry managed to veer off behind a storage shed from on top of the building. Danny turned the corner as well and stopped when he saw her facing him. She had torn the generator off the roof and was ready to throw it at him.

"Whoa!" he startled and stopped. He looked into her eyes; it wasn't anger he saw there, but fear.

Henry threw the generator at him, just about too quickly for the ghost boy to react. He shielded his eyes with his arms and went intangible, the piece of hardware flew right through him and crashed and rolled across the other building. He opened his eyes and saw an empty space where she had been standing. _Crud_, he thought, that brief moment he'd shielded his eyes had given her just enough time to escape.

He slumped his shoulders and began searching for any signs that she'd passed through. Danny had thought that if she was running as hard and as fast as she was then she would have been easy to just hear her steps, but she must have just slowed done enough to 'pull a ninja' on him. The teen ghost was about to give up when he saw some muddy footprints outside an abandoned building. _That has to be where she went_, he thought as he cautiously approached, not wanting to risk scaring her into another chase.

Danny went invisible and floated through a broken window that the footprints led to. They ran through the building, up a flight of stairs, and out through another window. He peered over to see a very exhausted redhead huddled down behind a dumpster, facing away from the street and toward a wooden fence, and crying into her hands. Finally this clique race would be over, but now comes the hard part; trying to explain to her about his ghost powers and what all had happened.

He stayed invisible, floating silently down to the ground so as not to alarm her. He gently set down in front of her, blocking her escape if she tried to make a break for it.

Danny, still in ghost form, became visible again, Henry still had her eyes covered by her hands and didn't notice him yet, "Henry?" he said softly.

Her head jerked up and she gasped when she saw him, backing as far as she could against the dumpster, "W-what do you want? Why a-are you here?" she stammered between deep, exhausted breaths.

"It's ok, I just need to talk to you about this," he went to rest a hand on her shoulder, "I need to explain—"

"No!" Henry went to push him away and was borderline horrified to see her hands pass right through his chest and face; she retracted her hands quickly with a gasped, sitting in shock with her jaw dropped and she just stared at him. She closed her mouth and spoke slowly, "Tell me what you are, and where you came from."

Danny relaxed slightly after realizing she was at least willing to talk about it, "It's a fairly long story, but the simplest explanation of 'what' I am is what some call a 'halfa', which refers to me being half a ghost, half a human."

"A _half _ghost," Henry still had that terrified look on her face, "does that mean … that you're _dead_?" she shivered at the notion.

The ghost boy thought for a moment, "Not that I'm aware of, I'm still alive and go to school, hang out, eat food, all the normal stuff that normal people do, I just happen to have powers on top of that. I have a ghost form, what you see right now, and a human form, where I have black hair and blue eyes."

Henry shivered again, "But … I always thought that … ghosts are spirits of the dead that are bound to this world by unfinished business."

Danny laughed, "Well that may be true for some ghosts, but not for me, I'm still—"

Almost without warning, the redhead leaned in against him and put her ear to her chest, causing him to blush for a moment. _What's she doing now?_ he thought. She gasped and scooted back toward the dumpster, "What?" he said in confusion.

She looked wide-eyed at him, "Y-you don't have a h-heartbeat," she stammered.

Now that made Danny gasp as well, he didn't have a heartbeat? How was that possible? He quickly changed back to a human, causing Henry to jump in surprise again, "What about now?"

More cautiously, Henry leaned back in to listen to his chest for a moment, "Now you do," she paused again, "so, does that mean you're _half_ dead?"

Danny laughed and scratched behind his head, "I guess it could be possible, I find out new stuff all the time about my other self."

The scruffy teen contemplated this new information for a moment, then began to slowly stand up, her legs shaking, "I think I should go home for a little while," she whispered with her head bowed.

Danny nodded; this was a lot of information to take in, "Yeah, I understand, are you gonna be ok?"

Henry began to wobble, "I'm really nauseous and my head hurts …" she trailed off as she fainted, and Danny barely caught her before she hit the pavement.

He didn't really blame her for fainting; she _did _run almost a mile in just over two minutes after all.

…

Henry opened her eyes about an hour and a half later on Danny's couch, a cold wet cloth on her forehead.

"Hey, I think she's waking up," she heard Sam's voice.

Everything was blurry until she became more alert. Somehow she had ended up back at Danny's house, _Please don't tell me he flew me here_, she thought briefly. All three of her friends were huddled around her, worried expressions across their faces.

"How are you feeling?" Danny asked.

She held her head, "My head still hurts," she shook it slightly, "but it _has_ been a long time since I've run that fast, let alone done any building jumping."

"Building what?" Tucker said in confusion.

"Just what it sounds like, 'building jumping', I think other people call it 'parkour' or something."

Sam handed her an aspirin and a glass of water, which the redhead took gratefully, "Are you feeling ok after what happened?"

"I don't know," she swished the remaining water around in her glass, "it's kinda something I've never heard of or expected."

Tucker turned to Danny, "How much did you tell her?"

"Not much," Danny shrugged, "really the basics, didn't want to overload her."

Henry downed the last of the water and stared Danny straight into his eyes, "If that was just the basics, then I want to hear _everything_."

The raven-haired teen raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure? Right now after that?"

"Yes, besides," she gave a weak smile, "I wanted to hear your life stories, remember?"

The trio laughed and Danny began to unfold the details of his past, the accident with the ghost portal, his ghost battles, and how he was hiding it from everyone except Sam and Tucker, and now her. She listened intently, not saying a word until Danny had finished, taking it all in.

"Wow, that's a lot that's happened to you," Henry said with wide eyes.

The ghost teen shrugged, "I guess so, but I've gotten so used to it that it just feels second nature, like an average, every day occurrence."

They sat in silence for several more minutes, Henry went to stand up again, "I should probably go home now, Uncle Rege will probably be coming home soon, and I really want to lay down."

"Ok, that's fine, want us to help you out?" Sam stood up with her.

"Only if you want," she walked slowly to the door.

The teen boys got up and followed them. They walked the short distance down the street to her house, walking in silence; Henry had her hands behind her head contemplating this new information. They helped her up the steep staircase to the porch; it seemed too steep for her to get up by herself since she was still pretty light-headed.

"Will we see you tomorrow maybe?" Danny hoped.

Henry looked back and smiled, "Sure, if Uncle Rege doesn't mind me out again," she went to turn the door knob and it wouldn't budge, "Crap in a hat, guess I locked myself out."

Danny turned his hand intangible and reached through the door to unlock it, causing Henry to squeak in surprise. The door opened and the redhead went inside, turning back to them, "Bye guys, I'll see you tomorrow, maybe."

"Ok, see you then dude," Tucker said with fake cheerfulness as Henry slowly closed the door.

The trio walked back down the stairs and back to Danny's house.

"See?" Sam said, "That wasn't so bad."

…

That night Danny wore pajama pants and his shirt, since he was actually coherent enough to change, and crawled into bed around 10:30, exhausted from the day and his mind still racing about the events. He couldn't really tell whether Henry would be ok with what they'd told her, if she was cheerful again next time they saw her then probably, but if not … he just hoped she wouldn't try to give his secret away. And what was that about his ghost side not having a heartbeat?

He was about to drift off to sleep when her heard a tapping on his window. The raven-haired teen rolled over to see a figure outside his window, _Who the heck could that be?_ he thought. No one could climb up the building like that, and his ghost sense didn't go off, so who was it? Curiously and groggily, he rolled out of bed and opened his window; it was Henry, balancing on his windowsill, her head bowed and a bundle in her arms.

"Henry?" he was a bit shocked, "What are you doing here?" then he looked down at the sidewalk below, "And how did you get up here?"

The scruffy teen paused for a moment, then looked up at Danny, who gasped when he saw her face. Her left eye and cheek were swollen, a large cut on her lip, her face red and puffy from crying, "If you're not mad, can I stay here tonight?"

…

End Chapter 4

…

Three guesses as to what happened to Henry. Read and review, and again, if no one has figured out where I got the relatives' names by next chapter, I'll post the answer in the next summary.


	5. Sleepover

Chapter 5, hurray! The answer to the previous question is in the below chapter. We left off at a rather important part of the story, and hopefully it only gets better. Read and review as always. Onward!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, please don't sue me

…

Chapter 5: Sleepover

…

Danny ran quickly but quietly downstairs to grab an ice pack and the first aid kit. He tried his best not to wake anyone this late at night, but he had to hurry. Henry's strange arrival on his windowsill had startled him, but not as much as her state. He'd left her in his room after he had ushered her in from his windowsill.

After he'd gathered up the items, he dashed back up the stairs, careful not to trip on the spots that creaked. Henry was sitting on his bed; she had taken off her yellow hoodie and had a white tank top on underneath. Danny plopped down next to her and placed the ice pack almost a bit too forcefully into her hands. She pressed it gently to her face, wincing slightly at the pressure against her swollen flesh.

Bruises and cuts littered her arms and what was exposed of her neck and chest. With one hand holding the ice pack to her face, she slowly dug through the first aid kit with her other, looking for band-aids and what not.

"So, what happened to you?" Danny finally asked awkwardly.

Henry paused momentarily, "Uncle Rege came home drunk and found out that I hadn't finished my chores, so he got mad and gave me the belt."

"The belt?" Danny was horrified, "Wait, you helped me with my chores but didn't do yours?"

The redhead set the ice pack down long enough to start sticking band-aids over open wounds, "I was too excited, I figured I'd be home in time after we'd hung out and could've finished them then. But I fell asleep and didn't wake up until he came home."

"This isn't right, he can't do this," Danny growled under his breath.

"He's not always like this, when he isn't drunk, he's actually a pleasant person," she rummaged through the kit again, "he just happens to be an alcoholic," she found a tube of ointment, "can you put this on my back? I can't quite reach."

"Ok," the teen boy said as he took it.

Henry turned around and slowly lifted up the back of her shirt, Danny gasped and nearly dropped the tube. Long welts and cuts were strewn across her back, obviously from 'the belt'.

Danny growled again, "This isn't right, I'm calling 911," he reached for his phone and opened it to dial.

"No!" the scruffy teen whipped around, snatched his phone and threw it out the window, then turned all the way around to face him, "If you tell anyone about this, I will tell everyone that you are a ghost!" she said it more from desperation rather than anger or intent, "Uncle Rege is already running from the law after people have found out, if anyone here finds out then we will have to leave again! And I _do not_ want to leave now! Not now that I have made friends and am trying to settle down!" she started to cry again.

The raven-haired teen was shocked, "Do you really think staying with friends is worth suffering this pain?"

"Yes," she said without hesitation, wiping her eyes with the front of her tank top. She paused for a moment, "will you please put some of that on my back?"

Danny realized he was still holding the ointment, "All right," he said slowly.

Henry turned back around and lifted her shirt again. The teen boy squirted his hand liberally and placed his palm on her back. She winced and he pulled away momentarily, then more gently he began to spread it across her back, slightly startled by the raised welts he felt. When Danny was satisfied that he had covered every wound thoroughly, he replaced the cap and Henry lowered her shirt back down slowly.

The teen boy thought momentarily, "I'm not sure my parents would appreciate a girl sleeping over, especially if they didn't even know she was over in the first place."

"Oh," Henry looked down and twiddled her fingers.

"Hold on, I'll be right back, I need to find the house phone," he got up to go back downstairs.

She grabbed his sleeve quickly, "Do not call the police!"

"I'm not going to, I promise, I'm gonna call Sam and see if you can stay there."

"Ok," she let go of his sleeve when she was certain he was telling the truth.

Danny tip toed back downstairs, turned on the small light above the kitchen sink and found the cordless phone. As much as he wanted to call the police or child services or something, he called Sam, not the wisest idea to lose Henry's trust by breaking a promise. He sat down to the table and dialed Sam.

"Hello?" Sam answered the phone, still wide-awake.

"Hey Sam, it's Danny, I have a bit of a problem," he whispered into the phone.

"A problem? What's wrong?"

"Well, it's Henry, she showed up on my windowsill and asked to stay here. She kinda ran away from home for the night."

"Ran away?" there was a pause, "Wait, how did she get on your windowsill?"

"I don't know," he shrugged even though he knew she couldn't see him, "but she asked to spend the night and I don't think my mom and dad would want a girl to stay over. And I was wondering if she could stay with you tonight."

"I guess, that's fine, but why doesn't she want to stay at her house?"

Danny paused, trying to form the best words, "Well, um, Uncle Rege beat her up pretty bad, and she's afraid to go home."

Sam gasped on the other side, "Did you call the police yet?"

"She doesn't want me to, she's afraid they'll have to move away again, so I told her I wouldn't."

"Well, in any rate, it's ok if she spends the night here, I can ask my parents if you and Tucker can come over too."

"Ok, that's fine," he paused, "Are they still awake?"

"Yeah, not sure why, but I don't feel like asking questions. I'll be right back."

The teen boy sat and waited while Sam put him on hold. A sleep over sounded nice, another chance to get to know Henry, and get all their minds off what happened.

"Can I say hi to Sam?"

Danny almost fell out of the chair; he whipped around and saw Henry standing close behind him, "Geez! How long have you been there?"

"Just barely got here, I'm good at sneaking too, hence why I was able to sneak out of the house. So can I say hi to her?"

"Yeah, but I'm on hold right now—"

Henry snatched the phone away and held it to her ear, waiting for Sam to get back on the other line.

There was a click on the other end as Sam picked the phone back up, "My parents said it's ok if you, Henry and Tucker want to come have a sleepover."

"Really? That sounds cool!" the redhead piped.

The Goth was surprised when she heard the other girl on the other end, "Oh, hi Henry, wanna come over for a sleepover?"

"Would I ever! I've never been to a sleepover! This'll be fun! What do people do at sleepovers?"

"Well, usually we eat a lot, watch creepy movies, talk about random stuff and so on. I'll see if I can get some pizza and popcorn cooked up, would you like any kind of candy?"

Henry stopped to think, "Do you have gummi bears?"

"I have gummi bats, they're pretty much the same thing but grape flavored," Sam sounded rather cheerful on the other side.

"Ok! I'll get Danny packed and we'll head over."

"Sounds good to me, I'll call Tucker and have him meet here too."

Danny snatched the phone away and whispered, "And don't tell him anything about what's going on."

"I won't, I promise, I'll see you guys soon."

"All right, see ya," and he hung up.

Henry grabbed his hand and began to pull him back upstairs, "Come on! Let's go pack!" as she practically dragged him.

_Well, looks like she's feeling a bit better_, he thought.

…

"Come on! Hurry up!" Henry tried to be quiet as she bounced back and forth between her feet.

"I _am_ hurrying, but we have to be quiet!" Danny whispered forcefully.

He packed up his pillow, a sleeping bag, a fresh change of clothes for the morning, and daily needs items like toothbrush, deodorant, hair brush, etc. He managed to stuff it all into a backpack for easier carrying.

Danny turned to look at Henry, "Do you have sleepover stuff?"

"Yeah," she lifted up her bundle, which turned out to be a pillow with some items stuffed into the pillowcase, "I can pretty much carry most my life in here."

He thought for a moment, "Do you have pajamas?"

"Nope, but I can sleep in my clothes, I usually sleep in either my clothes or underwear."

The teen boy blushed momentarily about the mention of underwear, "Well, I have an extra pair of pajama pants that I don't wear anymore if you'd like to have them."

"_Have_ them?" she was excited, "Sure! That would be cool."

Danny dug in his drawer and found his old pajama pants; they were light blue with white cartoon bunnies. He hadn't worn them since he was little, especially after he 'grew out' of such things. He handed them to Henry and she took them giddily.

"They're so cute," she cooed, "thank you!"

He finished packing his bag and swung it over his shoulders, "Ready?"

"Yeah, which way is Sam's house?"

Danny fidgeted for a second, "Well, the fastest way is to fly, she lives kinda far."

Henry froze, "Uh, fly?"

The raven-haired teen laughed awkwardly, "Well, I'm a ghost, remember? I can fly us there in no time."

She stood there contemplating, "Ok, I guess, but don't do anything scary."

He laughed and raised his hands in self defense, "I won't, I promise. Gimme just a sec," he said as he went to his desk and found a piece of paper and a pen and wrote down:

_Gone to a sleepover at Sam's house_

_Will be back tomorrow_

_-Danny_

He quickly taped it to his door and turned back to his friend, "All right, all set."

"Ok," Henry clutched her pillow to her chest, suddenly fearful.

Danny turned into his ghost form, causing Henry to squeak in surprise, "Don't worry," he picked her up to carry her, careful about touching her back, "There's nothing to be afraid of."

"I'm not afraid," she said matter-of-factly.

Danny turned them both intangible and flew through his house and roof and hovered twenty feet above his house.

"_Now_ I'm afraid," she said as she dropped her brave façade.

He laughed, trying not to mock her, "If you're scared then don't look down," and he took off.

She pinched her eyes shut tight, gripping the front of his jumpsuit. It was kinda funny; here was a person who parkour'ed for fun in her spare time but is afraid of flying. Henry made the mistake of opening one eye to look down and saw them speeding fast high up above the town. She squealed in fear and wrapped her arms and legs tightly around Danny's neck and waist, her pillowcase still tucked between them.

"Ack! You're fine!" he gasped as she squeezed the air out of him.

"Easy for _you_ to say!" she buried her face against his neck, "I _can't _fly! If you drop me, I'll fall and go splat!"

Danny tried to pry her hold free, "I'm not gonna drop you, but I might if you keep squeezing!"

At that remark, she loosened her grip, but refused to take her eyes away from where they were hidden. Danny blushed slightly at the close proximity and decided to concentrate on flying.

…

Sam heard a knock at the door, _That must be Danny and Henry_, she thought. Tucker had gotten there already, stuffing his face with meat lover's pizza. Sam got up to answer the door, also to get away from Tucker's bad manners and slurping. She opened the door to see Danny, Henry still wrapped tightly and securely around him like a koala bear, her face still buried in his neck.

She was confused at first, until Danny spoke, "So, apparently Henry is afraid of flying."

…

"_This_ is your _house_?" Henry exclaimed after she was finally pried off Danny and stepped inside, "The only place I've ever seen _this_ size was a _museum_!"

Sam laughed, "Well, my family is kinda … filthystinkingrich," she said under her breath.

The scruffy teen was in absolute shock, she dropped her pillowcase with a heavy thud. Danny and Sam both looked down at the rather small item that made such a big noise.

"Uh, what's in there?" Danny pointed.

Henry snapped out of it and looked down, "Oh, pretty much most of my life," she picked it back up, "minus big things like my violin case and mattress."

"So, Henry," Sam decided to get her attention, "we're using the sound-proof room so we can make as much noise as we want and won't bother my parents."

"Sound-proof room?" she paused, then leaned in and whispered, "Do you have a panic room for when the zombie apocalypse comes?"

The Goth stared for a moment, then laughed, "We sure do, but that's on the other side of the house, we're heading to—"

Henry sniffed, "I smell pizza!" and she ran off to find the smell's origin.

Sam blinked and leaned in toward Danny, "Are you sure she's ok?"

Danny shrugged, "I think so, she's seems a lot better than she was twenty minutes ago. Did you mention anything to Tucker?"

"Just that she wasn't feeling very good and wanted to spend the night, but I have a feeling he'll find out soon enough, but it's not really something we should gossip about in front of her."

"Agreed," the teen ghost relaxed.

…

Henry somehow found the right room in the huge house, the smell of food guiding her. It was, for lack of a better word, spectacular. It was a big, wide room with a soda bar, a large popcorn maker, and four different kinds of pizza, each smelled like heaven. There was the largest TV she'd ever seen; it took up practically the entire wall, with high shelves on either side full of a wide variety of movies. Several large couches scattered the room, each with a great view of the screen. Pillows and blankets were piled everywhere for snuggling.

"I knew it," she said with awe, "I've died, it's finally happened."

Sam and Danny came up behind her, "Nope, just a small epic party for friends," Sam folded her arms with satisfaction.

Danny was even shocked, "Wow Sam, you've really outdone yourself, and such short notice too."

"Well, this is one of our screening rooms, it was just a matter of making sure everything was stocked and that the couches were set up properly, and blankets and pillows for when we were ready to crash."

The raven-haired teen had been ready to crash earlier, but now he was wide-awake.

Henry looked back at Sam, "Can I …?"

"Help yourself," she said graciously.

The redhead squealed happily and bounced over to the soda bar and began digging through the 2-liters, looking for a prize, "Eureka!" she pulled out a two-liter bottle of Mountain Dew and opened it.

"Uh, do you want a glass?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"Nope, I'm good," and she drank straight from the bottle, padding over to one of the couches where Tucker was sitting and jumped next to him. He was already in his pajamas, same as Danny; he'd probably been woken up too.

"Hi Henry!" Tucker said through a mouth full of pizza, "How're you feeling?" he said as he slapped her on the back.

She sprayed the soda she had in her mouth everywhere at the contact of her tender flesh. Danny flinched, knowing exactly what was there. Henry coughed on the soda, wiping her hoodie sleeve under her chin.

"Dude, are you ok?" Tucker said, patting her back out of habit to soothe her coughing, "What happened to your face?"

She flinched with each pat then rolled away, "I'm ok! You just startled me is all!" she put her hand behind her head bashfully as she lied, then looked down at the pizza box he had in his lap, "Pizza!" and she went to grab a slice.

"Nu-uh," the techno-geek swiped it away, "Go get you own pizza, this is mine."

She frowned, "Sharing is caring!" and she lunged at him, though he held her back with one hand.

"Uh Henry, there's four more here," Danny pointed out.

She stopped and looked up over the back of the couch to see the boxes she had forgotten there. With a squeal of excitement, she jumped over the back of the couch and sprinted to the other boxes, digging through them to see what treasures were in store, "Mmmm! Olives and mushrooms and bacon and chicken and onions! How'd you know that's my favorite?" she stole the whole box and bounded back to the couch.

Sam laughed, "I didn't really know, that's one that my family usually doesn't like so I cooked it up in case we wanted to eat it."

"Works for me!" the redhead pulled out a slice and shoved half of it in her mouth, giggling and cooing over the flavor.

Danny and Sam laughed and gathered up munchies for themselves and found their own couches.

"So Henry," Sam tried to get her attention again, "do you wanna pick a movie or two to watch?"

She stopped, "_I_ get to pick?"

"If you want, I'm pretty down for whatever we decide to—"

She jumped up, leaving her pizza and soda on the couch and ran to the movie shelves, "I wanna watch Little Shop of Horrors! No wait, Night of the Living Dead! Oh, Evil Dead is good too! But what about Texas Chainsaw Massacre? No, I know, we should watch all four Tremors movies!" as she pulled down a pile of movies to choose from. All of a sudden, she stopped and delicately pulled down one specific movie as if it held the meaning of life, "We _have_ to watch this one first," she held up the old Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

Danny laughed, "Sure, I haven't seen that one in forever."

Tucker raised an eyebrow, "I don't think I've seen that one before."

Henry was shocked, "Blasphemy! You _must_ watch it! It's a classic, and it's where I first learned about the Jabberwocky poem."

"The what?" Sam stared.

"You know, the song the Cheshire Cat sings," Henry held up two fingers, swaying them like a metronome, " 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; all the mimsy were the borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe. Remember?"

Danny laughed again, "I don't really, it's been forever."

"Then onward!" the scruffy teen held the case high above her head and went to the Blu-ray player, "Uh, how does this work?"

…

Henry sat on the edge of her seat the whole time, absolutely memorized by the clarity of the Blu-ray and the huge screen, munching her pizza and downing the soda. Sam and Danny were pleasantly amused by it, though Tucker was a bit confused.

"Why does she keep eating stuff that she knows makes her grow and shrink and then is surprised when she grows and shrinks?" Tucker waved his hands in the air.

"Sh!" Henry shushed him, "Here comes the best part!"

Of course, it was when the Cheshire Cat came on screen and started singing, Henry sang along with him, but the others didn't know the words so they just laughed. The movie kept playing; the quartet was enthralled in their own ways with it.

When the movie ended, Henry jumped up with her empty bottle of soda, "Off with your head!" and she bopped said bottle on top of Danny's head.

"Hey!" he rubbed his head but laughed, "Off with _your_ head!" and he threw a pillow at her.

He threw it a bit too hard and knocked her back into the pile of pillows, burying her in the fluff. Danny felt bad momentarily, but after Henry stood up with a pillow in her hands, he more or less relaxed.

"Off with _all your_ heads!" and screamed like Xena Warrior Princess, attacking everyone and beat them with the pillow.

A pillow fight ensued, everyone laughed and shouted, feathers flying everywhere; thank heavens for the sound proof room. They were finally too tired to keep fighting and plopped down in the mess of fluff.

"Sorry about your pillows," Henry suddenly looked remorseful.

Sam waved her hand, "Don't worry about it, it sure was fun, we've just gotta make sure we clean it up tomorrow."

The redhead fanned her face, "Man, I'm really hot now," and she started pulling her hoodie off.

As she lifted her hoodie up over her head, her tank top came up a bit, revealing her back and bandaged arms to Sam and Tucker. Danny flinched at seeing it again, Sam clasped a hand over her mouth in shock, and Tucker stared wide-eyed.

"Dude, what happened to your back?" he pointed.

Henry finished pulling her hoodie off and pulled her shirt back down in embarrassment, "Oh, I fell down the stairs when I left my house."

Tucker raised his eyebrow, "Those must have been some very angry stairs or something."

"Yes, they were _very_ angry," she laughed it off.

Sam looked at Danny, and he nodded to affirm what she was thinking. Henry paused then looked at Sam, "Hey, do you have somewhere I can change into pajamas? Unless you guys wanna see me in my underwear."

"Sure!" Tucker piped.

"No!" Danny said quickly.

Sam stood up, "Yeah, I wanna change into my pajamas too, I'll take you up to my room," she motioned to the boys, "you guys stay here".

After they left, the techno-geek leaned toward Danny, "So what was that about?"

Danny sighed and began to quietly tell the story about what happened to Henry.

…

"Don't mention to them that I told you anything, ok?" Danny whispered.

Tucker was shocked, "Uh sure dude, but I still think we should call the police."

"We might have to someday, but for right now I promised I wouldn't say anything. I just figured since you were one of her friends and you had seen that then you might as well know. But like I said, don't say anything about it to her."

"Ok, I won't," Tucker gave in.

"Won't what?"

Both boys jumped and turned to face Henry.

"Oh uh, that he won't hog his pizza anymore," Danny swiped a slice and handed it to her.

"Yay! Thank you!" she took it and munched it before Tucker could protest, "By the way, thank you for the pajama pants, they fit great, except I'm a little short."

She was now in her white tank top with the blue pants, the drawstring pulled tight to keep them from falling off, but the bottoms went down almost passed her toes.

"Yeah, they look much better on you than they did on me," Danny smiled up at her.

The scruffy teen blushed and scratched the back of her head, "Uh, thanks."

Danny realized how that, he too blushed and turned away, "So, do you wanna watch another movie?"

"Mm-hm," she said through a mouthful of pizza, "I wanna watch the old black-and-white 1968 Night of the Living Dead and laugh at how fake it is and how it was 'the scariest movie if its' time'."

Tucker leaned back, "We've seen that one so many times."

Henry looked a little sad, "But I haven't seen it in years," she looked down at her feet.

"Hey Henry," Danny changed the subject, "wanna grab me another Coke from the bar?"

"Ok!" she chimed, stuffed the rest of the pizza slice in her mouth and ran to said bar.

Danny leaned toward Tucker and elbowed him, "Be nice."

"Do you want a 2-liter or 1-liter?" she called.

"1 liter is fine," Danny stretched.

"Pansy," she said as she pulled out another 2-liter Mountain Dew for herself, "you want anything Tucker?"

"I'll see your two-liter and raise you a six pack," he smirked.

Henry looked up at him, then giggled wickedly, "You're on!" and gathered up all the soda she could carry, "Do you want to have an eating contest too?"

"You betcha! But just letting you know, I'm gonna win," he pointed to himself smugly.

"You're so full of yourself Tucker," Sam walked in wearing her own pajamas.

"So Sam," Henry turned to the other girl, "What movie do you wanna watch?"

"I dunno, what do you wanna watch?"

"Well, I wanted to watch the old Night of the Living Dead," she frowned, "but Tucker is being a bum and won't watch it."

"Dude!" Tucker raised his hands, "We've seen that so many times!"

"Uh, what about Little Shop of Horrors?" Danny spoke up, "You mentioned that you wanted to see that one."

"Ok!" Henry padded back to the pile of movies she'd previously made.

Tucker leaned over, "Dude, you've got distracting her down to an art."

…

"And this is why I hate vegetables," Tucker pointed as Audrey 2 ate its' first victim.

"But they're so good for you!" Henry said through a mouthful of gummi bats, "Eating just meat is going to clog your arteries and has very little if any fiber to keep you regular."

"You see?" Sam said, "There are advantages to eating greens."

The redhead gulped down the last of her two-liter, "We can't really afford fresh produce so we don't get many greens, let alone regular food," she started her ninth slice of pizza, "I'm so sick of canned peaches and ramen."

Danny laughed, "Yeah, I'd get pretty sick of it too."

Henry swooned over the movie, "I love musicals, they're so fun to sing along with."

"Oh yeah," Sam took a bite of popcorn, "you said your grandpa taught you to sing opera."

"Yeah, but that was a long time ago," she suddenly jumped up and sang along with 'Suddenly Seymour'. She was perfectly on tune and reached all the high notes, and pretending to be so dramatic about it.

_Suddenly Seymour  
>He purified me<br>Suddenly Seymour showed me I can!  
>Learn how to be more<br>The girl that's inside me  
>With sweet understanding!<em>

"Dude! You should try out for the talent show!"

Henry raised a hand and shook her head, "Nope, I don't want people to know me by my singing, but by who I am."

"Good point," Sam said, "but you _are _good."

"Thanks," the scruffy teen shuffled her feet and put her hands behind her back, "Anyway, no more soda for me! Where's a bathroom?"

"Down the hall, third door on the left," Sam motioned with her thumb.

The redhead ran out of the room to find the bathroom before she wet herself.

"So when are we planning on going to bed?" Danny asked as he yawned.

"Whenever we want to I guess," Sam ate the last popcorn seeds out of the bottom of her bowl, "I'm not really that tired."

"Well, I'm pretty tired," Tucker leaned his elbow against the armrest.

Danny laid back against the couch, "Me too, I dunno how much longer I can last."

Everyone was silent, before a pair of hands grasped Danny's face from behind, causing him to jump, "They're coming to get you Barbara," Henry growled, then started grabbing at his face and play-biting his head like a zombie.

"Hey!" Danny squirmed, "Cut that out!"

Suddenly, Henry stopped play biting his head and started running her fingers through his hair, "Your hair is so soft and smooth and play-able," she nuzzled it, "and it smells good too."

Danny blushed bright red for the next few minutes that the redhead entertained herself with his raven-hair, running her fingers through it and nuzzling it and twirling strands around her fingers, "Uh, Henry?"

Then 'Mean Green Mother' came on; Henry jumped up and ran around singing along rock and roll style while playing an air guitar.

Danny's hair was all messed up and wild, he was still blushing, "I'm not so tired anymore."

…

It was around 4am, and part way through Tremors 2, when Henry's sugar rush finally crashed. Tucker had passed out over an hour and a half ago, Sam was pretty drowsy, but still alert, as well as Danny. The scruffy teen rolled piles of feathers and leftover soda bottles, cans, and pizza boxes aside to make a nest of blankets and pillows for herself on the ground.

"Bed time," she yawned and found her pillowcase, dragging it to her nest.

She turned it upside down and dumped out several strange items onto the floor, some appeared to be just trinkets of many sorts. With her pillowcase somewhat emptied, her actual pillow was actually very small, and almost flat. Henry sifted through the items, looking for something specific, and pulled out a small wooden box and dusted it off slightly.

"What's that?" Sam yawned as she fluffed her pillow.

"A music box," the redhead said, "Grandpa gave it to me, it helps me sleep sometimes."

"Cool," Danny said absent mindedly as he snuggled under a blanket.

Henry kept the box closed to keep it from playing while she snuggled down in her little fortress, completely hidden. She then set it on the ground next to her and opened it to let it play; nothing came out, so she reached out from under a blanket and swatted it to get it started.

The music box started up slowly with a bit of static, and then began to play properly. It was a nice quiet old ballad that Danny thought he'd heard somewhere before.

"What song is that?" he barely formed the words.

"Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera," Henry managed to say before she almost instantly fell asleep.

Sam snuggled down and closed her eyes, "I like that song, it's beautiful."

Danny yawned and stretched, too tired to respond. He pushed a pizza box off the couch he was resting on and shifted. The raven-teen was about to fall asleep when he heard Henry start to hum to the song softly in her sleep. He looked up at Sam, who smiled back at him and lightly laughed. They both rolled over, listening to the music box and the teen girl until they drifted off to sleep.

_Yeah, nice song_, was the last thought that went through Danny's mind before he slipped into dream world.

…

End Chapter 5

…

Ok, for those of you that couldn't figure it out; Garnet Sky got the 1st one right, the movies are: Night of the Living Dead (remake) and The Evil Dead. If anyone hasn't seen them, check them out, they're classics, lol. Next chapter will hopefully be out soon.

Edit: just realized I actually used 3 movies for names, I used Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn for Henrietta's name. Sorry I cheated a bit.


	6. What Friends are For

I decided to go ahead and start chapter 6, dunno how many chapters I can get out, but we'll see. Oh, and by the way … Happy 23rd Birthday to me! (Edit: this was written on April 21st) :D Yes, I'm 23 years old and still writing fanfiction, but think about it this way: you wouldn't even be reading this fic if I'd quit writing, so there, lol. Here's chapter 6, read and review.

Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright to Danny Phantom, this is merely dribble poured out of my twisted little mind.

…

Chapter 6: What Friends are For

…

Danny and Tucker finally woke up after one, but only because Henry decided to turn on the vacuum and start cleaning up the feather mess and crumbs. She and Sam had been up for about an hour and a half or so, picking up empty pizza boxes and soda bottles. They all had sugar hangovers, with pounding headaches and nauseous stomachs.

"Good morning," Sam said when she noticed the two boys waking up, "or should I say, good afternoon."

Tucker blinked sleepily, "What are you guys doing up?"

"Cleaning?" Henry said in a 'duh' manner, "what are you doing up?"

"We're up because _you_ woke us up," Tucker growled.

"Hey," Henry held a finger up, "the proper amount of sleep the average individual needs is around seven and a half to eight hours. If I calculated correctly, you overslept, so it's time to get up," she poked Tucker's face with the active vacuum hose.

He swatted it away, "Knock it off!"

The scruffy teen turned the hose on Danny, who appeared to have fallen back asleep, "Wakey wakey," as she sucked a chunk of hair up the hose.

"Ack! I'm up! I'm up!" Danny sat up lazily, prying the hose off his head.

"Well, now that you two are awake," Sam put her hand on her hip, "you can help us take out the trash."

"Ok," Danny stood up, "But don't let Henry take the trash out, I don't want a repeat of last time."

"Shut up!" she punched him mockingly, "That was an accident and you know it!"

Sam raised an eyebrow, "And what is that about?"

"Nothing," Henry said quickly, then noticed Tucker had rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

The redhead growled and yanked the blanket off him, causing him to fall on the floor.

"Hey, what was that for?"

Henry handed him a full garbage bag, "Sam and I have been cleaning all morning, it's _your_ turn to do some work."

"Ok ok," Tucker snatched it angrily.

Sam handed Danny a broom, "Start sweeping up some of this fluff, we can't get it all in the vacuum."

"All right," the raven-haired teen was still too tired to argue.

"Hop to it!" Henry switched off the vacuum when the bag was full, "I've still gotta get home and do _my_ chores!" she left the room to dispose of said full bag.

_Oh yeah_, Danny thought as he started sweeping. It was a bit harder than thought; the feathers would float up each time he pushed the broom, which was mildly irritated. His foot suddenly tapped something on the floor and a song started slowly playing. He looked down and realized it was Henry's music box. _Oops_, he thought, _I'd better pick that up before someone else steps on it._

As he picked it up, a few photos fell out that he hadn't noticed before. Danny didn't mean to be a snoop, but it suddenly intrigued him. He picked them up and carefully sorted through them. They were old and wrinkled from years of wear and tear, though some he wasn't quite sure how old.

"What are those?" Tucker had come back from throwing the large bag into a dumpster out back.

"Oh, just some photos that fell out of Henry's music box," he examined them more closely, "I think they're her family."

"Let me see!" Tucker ran over to see what his friend was holding.

Danny pulled them away, "Uh, we should probably put them back."

"Come on dude, she didn't have a problem _telling_ us about her family, I'm sure she wouldn't mind us _looking_ at pictures of them."

The teen ghost contemplated, "Well, I guess I was already looking at them."

The two boys gathered around the pile of photos, trying to pick out which relatives were who. Some were obvious, like one of her grandparents and her standing in front of their house and the farm with Scotty holding her upside down by one ankle; the aunts and uncles were a bit harder to figure out. There were several of her as a little kid, like one of her swinging on the tire swing she'd talked about, one it appeared to be her drawing math equations on the wall with a guilty face, another of her with the stereotypic sitting in a high chair covered in spaghetti and a lot more.

"What are you doing?"

Both boys almost jumped out of their skin and turned to see Sam and Henry standing in the doorway, an innocent, questioning look on the redhead's face.

"Oh uh, I found some of your pictures on the floor," Danny handed them along with the music box to her, "I didn't want you to lose them or anything."

She had a somewhat sad face as she took her precious belongs, "Thanks, I would have been devastated had I lost them," stuffing the photos gently back into the box.

Danny and Tucker suddenly felt guilty for looking at them, Henry saw their faces, "Did you want to know who was who?"

"Uh, kinda," Tucker said with a shrug, "but we didn't mean to look at them."

The redhead smiled and took them back out, "Why didn't you say so?" and she grabbed her friends and sat them on the nearest couch.

Henry began unraveling the mysteries of her family photos, sticking her tongue at the one of her and Scotty. She also revealed that almost all of them smoked, an apparently inherited family habit, though she swore that she would never pick up the nasty habit. Then she reached into a secret pocket in her music box and found another folded up photo. She carefully unfolded as if it would fall apart.

"This is a family photo of everyone before I was born, it has my mom and dad in it," she pointed out a young, happy couple, "I wish I'd at least been able to meet them," she said sadly. She also pointed out who each aunt and uncle were, solving the mystery Danny and Tucker couldn't solve themselves..

"Anyway," she folded up the photo, put it in its' compartment and put the rest of the photos back inside, "we've got a lot of work to do before I go home," she picked up the recently emptied vacuum and walked away the another corner of the room.

Danny thought momentarily, "Hey, why don't we come over to your house and help out with your chores after we get this cleaned up?"

Henry stopped as if she'd been caught and turned back to look at them, "You don't have to, I think I can get them done by myself ok."

The raven-haired teen shrugged, "What are friends for? Plus you helped me out with mine yesterday."

"And you're helping us with this mess today," Sam motioned to the still messy room, "I think we should pay you back for the help."

Henry smiled, "That would be nice, thank you."

…

In no time, they were all on their way to Henry's house, Sam and Tucker road their scooters, Danny went invisible to fly without being noticed, the redhead refused a ride.

"Race ya!" Henry shouted as she took off on foot, her pillowcase securely stuffed under her hoodie.

The trio laughed and sped off after her. It was harder than they thought to keep up, she didn't run as fast as she had the day before, probably not wanting to wear herself out again. Nonetheless, she beat them all there; Sam and Tucker parked their scooters in front of her house, Danny went around to the back of the house to change unnoticed.

"So what are your chores anyway?" Tucker asked as he marched up the twisted staircase.

"Let me see," Henry started counting off on her fingers, "Finish sweeping and mop, finish straightening the porch and inside of the house, weed the lawn, clean up the apple mess from the tree, wash the windows, and rake the leaves. And Uncle Rege told me he was going to bring home boards, nails, paint and wallpaper to fix up the inside of the house and fence after he gets off work."

Sam's jaw dropped, "And he expected you to do all that by yourself?"

"Well, I clean pretty fast, so I could get most of it done pretty quickly," Henry went to open the door, "Crap in a hat! They locked me out again!"

"I'll get it," Danny offered as he did the time before.

"No, I got it," the redhead went around to the back of the house where the apple tree was, "I've gotta practice getting in and out through my room."

She started to climb the twisted branches that led up to the attic window. She had left the window slightly cracked so she could open it, then climbed inside carefully, almost falling out of the tree in the process. They heard her run down the stairs and open the front door.

"Well, that was fun," she said with a sigh.

They all laughed, "So, where do you think we should start first?" Sam asked.

The scruffy teen thought for a moment, "Danny can start weeding, we can rake them all up with the apple mess when we get to that point. Tucker can start on the windows, and Sam can work sweeping the porch, just sweep it out onto the lawn and we'll clean it up," she thought to herself again, "I'm gonna go do something else really quick, stay away from the tree," and she ran back up the stairs.

The trio looked at each other, then went to work. Sam found the broom just inside the door. Danny decided to start pulling weeds at the edge of the fence.

"Where's the window cleaner?" Tucker called up to Henry, but didn't hear a response.

Just then, they heard the scruffy teen call out like Tarzan and the tree started shaking wildly. Leaves and apples began raining down from the branches, causing the three teens to scatter away from the hazard zone.

"What the heck are you doing?" Sam shouted up at her.

Henry dangled from a thick branch and looked at them, "If I shake down all the apples and leaves now then I won't have to worry about them later when they fall off on their own. Oh, and the wind-ex is in the hallway closet," and then she continued to shake and bounce around in the tree violently, shaking lose as much debris as she could.

…

As soon as the teens were sure they'd be safe, they set to work with their assigned jobs. Henry had finally finished shaking free all the decaying leaves and apples and had grabbed the rake from around back and started raking everything up into a somewhat organized pile. They could hear her singing 'Skid Row' from Little Shop of Horrors, they laughed and started singing along with her to pass the time and make working more fun.

"All the windows are clean," Tucker called as he left the house with his rag.

"Ok, thank you. Can you help Danny with the weeds, that's the biggest job, I'll rake behind you guys when I situate these ickies," she threw over her shoulder, then stopped, "It's hot again," and took off her hoodie to just in jeans and her tank top.

After she was a little more comfortable, she broke into song again with 'Dentist'. Danny and Tucker had the yard almost a third of the way weeded as Henry finished with the 'ickies' and started raking the pulled weeds behind them. Sam was still working on the inside of the house, but had thankfully finished sweeping and was mopping.

Henry caught up with Danny and Tucker, "Hurry up slowpokes!" then went inside to grab garbage bags to start stuffing with weeds and apple mush.

" 'Slowpokes'?" the techno-geek growled, "She should do this if we're so slow."

The redhead had come out of the house in time to hear Tucker and came up beside him, "Just do it like this," she grabbed fists full of weeds as well as some grass, yanked them out, tossed them over her shoulder and continued for several more pulls, "See? That doesn't take too long," and she made her way to the back of the house to clean up her mess.

"Well, if it'll make it go faster," Danny started using Henry's method, which actually turned out pretty fast.

Henry had filled one bag with apple mess and started to make her way down the steps to drop it on the curb, when she suddenly tripped on the steep staircase and went rolling. The bag she was carrying burst open and scattered mush all down the steps. The trio stared, mildly horrified by her hard work coming undone everywhere.

The scruffy teen sat up at the bottom of the stairs, rubbing her head, "Crap in a hat!"

"See? This is why you aren't allowed to take out the trash," Danny joked.

Henry glared back up at him, "That isn't freakin' funny!"

Although it actually really was funny.

…

By sunset, everything had been taken care of, all the weeds had been raked into several bags and piled on the curb, the apple mush cleaned off the stairs, and the inside of the house nice and clean. Henry whipped up some Kool-aid as a small thank you for their help. They sat and joked on the porch, the redhead making exaggerated gestures and poses as she told stories of living from house to house with relatives.

Danny suddenly stopped with a serious face, "So when is Uncle Rege coming home?"

The scruffy teen took a drink, "What time is it?"

Sam looked at her watch, "8:42."

"Ah-ha, he should be home right about … now."

The rusty truck pulled around the corner and parked in front of the gate. The trio stiffened, Henry didn't seem too worried; she even ran down the steps to greet him, almost tripping down them again. Wouldn't she be a little scared that he came home now?

She hit the gate with a thud, Uncle Rege stepped out of the truck and Tommy and Ben crawled out behind him, "Hi Uncle Rege," Henry said happily, "Look! We got everything done like you asked, and everything looks clean and tidy."

Uncle Rege stood in front of her for several seconds, studying the yard and then back at her. Danny, Sam, and Tucker were, for lack of a better word, irritated by his presence; they all felt like giving him a piece of their minds.

The redneck reached a hand up toward Henry, the trio leaned forward as if to stop him if he hurt her, but instead he placed his hand on her head and messed up her already messy hair, "Good job," he smiled.

She giggled and swatted away his hand, "You're welcome."

They were shocked; it was a complete turn around from yesterday. This didn't seem like an abuser to them now.

"Aw man," Tommy jumped the fence, "now we can't play hide and seek in the weeds!"

"But it's better for the yard," Uncle Rege opened the gate, "Will you help me with these boards and paint?"

"Sure!" Henry piped and jumped the short fence and ran to the truck, "Can you guys come help me?" she called up to her friends who were still on the porch.

With mild hesitation, the trio walked down the steps, glaring at the redneck as they passed him, though he didn't seem to notice. They helped unload board after board from the truck bed, Uncle Rege even helping out this time instead of sitting on the sidelines watching as Henry had unloaded the truck from the initial move. They propped the boards up on the porch against the house, setting several cans of paint beside them. A bag from Home Depot with nails and an assortment of small tools went inside the house and was set next to the front door. The trio kept their eyes on him the whole time incase his current attitude was a façade.

Uncle Rege stretched and yawned in exhaustion, "It's time to call it day," and he went inside, "thanks for the help kids."

Henry smiled in satisfaction, and then she noticed her friends' confused faces. She leaned in and quietly whispered, "I told you he's actually a fairly pleasant person when he isn't drunk, and I knew he wasn't drunk by how straight he was driving," then there was the hiss of a can being opened, "Aaaaaaand, time to go," as she began to usher them down the steps.

Danny turned around as Henry was about to close the short gate, "Are you gonna be ok?"

She smiled, "Yeah, he works twelve to sixteen hour shifts of manual labor, so he's really tired. Just gotta stay out of the way for the rest of the night," she closed the gate and locked it, "Oh, by the way, you'd probably better find your phone before it gets picked up by the wrong person," and she scampered up the steps into the house.

_Oh yeah_, Danny remembered that she threw it out the window last night

…

End Chapter 6

…

What a twist, lol. Next chapter, Henry's first day of school, oh what fun. x3 Read and review please!


	7. School

Chapter 7, Henry's first day at Casper High, we'll see what happens. x3 This is going to be a somewhat long chapter, as I'm trying to mush 2 full days into 1 chapter to keep the plot moving.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, please don't sue.

…

Chapter 7: School

…

The weeks that passed seemed to just blow by. The gang mostly spent it showing Henry around town; they took her to the Nasty Burger, the mall, and other venues, though they made sure not to stop by the arcade. She didn't seem too incredibly interested in most places, she said there were too many people for her to think, so how would she do at school?

Before any of them knew it, the second week of August rolled around and the first day of school came. Henry said she'd never actually gone to school before, but sat in on classes or lectures with her relatives, as well as homeschooling by said relatives, so this was going to be an interesting experience. How much were they going to have to teach her?

Danny walked down the street a little before seven am to pick up Henry. He felt more dismal than he usually felt even for the first day of school. He just knew people were going to pick on her for being new; hopefully she'd be able to handle it. Of course she'd be able to handle it, she was so happy and upbeat all the time, she'd probably see the bright side of everything. But still, the thought still picked at his mind.

Henry stood on the corner, leaning against the old fence. She had a dark tan canvas bag swung over one shoulder and her hoodie and jeans looked freshly cleaned. Her head was bowed and her arms folded, not acknowledging the presence of any living thing. Danny strode up beside her and realized she was sleeping. He shook her lightly and her head snapped up, she stretched and yawned.

"Tired?" Danny laughed.

"Yeah, I was so excited I couldn't sleep," she arched backward and popped her back, "ready?"

Before the raven-haired teen could answer, Henry grabbed his sleeve and began pulling him down the sidewalk, a spring in her step despite minimal sleep. _Yup, she'd be fine_, Danny hoped, then realized something and stopped.

"School is _that_ way," he pointed the opposite direction he was being dragged.

Henry scratched the back of her head, "Oh, right, onward!" and she pulled him the right direction.

…

"_This_ is your school?" Henry asked, looking up at the three-story building.

Sam gave her sleeve a tug to keep her moving, "Nope, this is _our_ school. Come on, we don't wanna be late."

_Speak for yourself_, Danny thought. He hated being in school, nothing but popular snobs and careless teachers. Tucker and he followed the girls through the front doors. There were many familiar faces, and a few new ones. The kids from the grades below his looked like a bunch of scared sheep crowded together looking around at the new sights. Man, he knew _that_ feeling!

The scruffy teen had never opened a locker before, so that was the best place to start. They found her locker right off the bat, Sam showed her how locker combinations worked and let her try for herself. She tried three times to no avail.

"Why you do this?" Henry asked the locker.

"Do you want me to show you again?" Sam suggested.

The redhead stared at the locker for a bit longer, "Hold on." She pressed her ear against the metal surface and turned the dial much more slowly as if she were trying to open a safe. When she had turned all the numbers, she leaned back and punched right next to the lock it popped right open, "Ha! First victory of the day!" she pumped a fist in the air.

They all read their new schedules together and found out they were in most of the same classes, but Henry wasn't too worried about the ones they weren't in with her.

"Don't worry too much, I'm pretty sure I'll survive a whole two hours without you guys," she waved a hand proudly, "But first we have English?"

Just as she turned around, Henry bumped into one of the biggest guys she'd ever seen.

"Is this a new member to the loser squad, Fen-turd?"

"Back off, Dash," Danny groaned, "she's new here, leave her alone."

Dash scoffed, "That explains why she's hanging around with you nerds!"

"Knock it off Dash!" Sam growled

The scruffy teen tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, "Excuse me sir, but are you by any chance head of the football team?" motioning toward his letterman jacket.

Dash smirked, "Yeah."

"Ah, thought so, your head is too small to retain enough information to use, but it's the perfect size to be bashed around in a helmet," Henry took a single exaggerated step to the left and continued walking as if she hadn't bumped into him in the first place.

The jock was somewhat taken aback by being ignored and brushed off by this loser, he didn't really know what to say. The rest of the gang took the chance while he was dumbstruck to leave as well, trying to stifle their laughter.

…

When they got to Lancer's class, the quartet decided to sit relatively close together for support, but Henry still wasn't worried.

"My grandma was an English teacher, remember?" the redhead leaned back in her seat and put her hands behind her head, "This is going to be a breeze."

"Now class," Lancer started, "We are going to read this book aloud together."

Many students groaned. They hated reading like this; it meant everyone had to participate. Lancer passed out books for each row, the title read: '_Where the Red Fern Grows_.' They were going to read a book about red plants? Everyone opened to the first page of chapter one. Lancer had his own copy up front.

"This is your first assignment of the year: Freestyle book report on this book. We will read it aloud in class each day until we finish it, then I will give you one week to do your book report. You will be graded on how well thought out it is and how accurate it is. Now let me see," he browsed down his attendance list to choose the first student to read, "Miss Henrietta Cooper?"

"Right here!" she raised her hand.

There was scattered laughter around the room upon hearing her odd name. Danny, Sam, and Tucker glared around the room at people who mocked their friend, but the scruffy teen either didn't notice or didn't care.

"Miss Cooper, will you start us off on chapter one?"

"Ok!" she smiled.

Henry picked up the book in front of her, looked at the cover, then set it back down unopened. She looked her teacher straight in the eye as she recited the chapter word-for-word without even looking at the pages as the class followed along in their own copies.

"So," Lancer smiled, "I see you've read this book before."

"Six times," Henry piped, "This will be my seventh. My grandma was an English teacher and taught me to read many books at a young age. Would you like me to continue to the next chapter?"

"Actually, why don't we give other students a chance to read, I'm sure they'd love to be able to read it as well," Lancer glanced up at the rest of the class, though inwardly he was happy to have a student so fluent in the subject.

"Ok!" the redhead sat up in her seat politely.

The rest of their peers that read were much slower and it took quite a bit longer. Henry sat patiently and quietly, not glancing at her book once for the duration of class. The bell rang, signaling the end of first period. Everyone stood up and packed up their bags to go to their next class.

"Miss Cooper," Lancer got her attention before she left, "may I have a word with you?"

"Certainly," and she padded lightly to the front of his desk.

The trio stood outside the door, watching their friend chatting with the English teacher. They decided to glance over their schedules again, Danny and Henry had the next class together, it was math, while Sam and Tucker had a separate class.

"Why don't you guys go ahead," Danny said, "I'll stay here and wait for her and take her to next period."

"Sure dude," Tucker shrugged, "I just hope she doesn't get in trouble her first day of school."

"She's probably fine, but I don't wanna leave her behind," Danny waved a hand.

"All right," Sam said reluctantly, "We'll meet you guys at your locker at lunch."

The raven-haired teen glanced back to see what was going on. He couldn't quite hear them over the noise of all the other teenagers chattering and hustling to their next class. By the looks of the conversation, she wasn't in trouble at all. He waited several more minutes until she finally came out of the classroom, a big smile on her face.

"So what happened?" he questioned.

Henry was holding a stack of books, "Mr. Lancer gave a bunch of books to read!"

Danny raised an eyebrow, "And why are you excited about it?"

"Because now I won't be bored in class. I can read these books while you guys read the ones I've already read."

"Uh, you can barely even carry those, how are you going to read all of those?"

"With the power of learning!" she said with a triumphant look on her face, "Plus at night when Uncle Rege gets drunk I'll have something to do while I'm hiding out of the way."

"Oh," Danny finally got it, "so are you ready to go to our next class?"

"Yeah! Onward!" she grabbed his sleeve and started pulling him down the hallway.

The teen boy stopped them, "Our next class is _that_ way," he pointed in the opposite direction.

…

Math went almost exactly the same way, only with numbers. Henry outdid the class by finishing the homework that would be due at the end of the week; the teacher pulled her aside afterward to have a talk, but this time she came out with a Trigonometry book. Danny doubted she'd be able to finish all that work, and college level work nonetheless.

"Well, the teachers basically said I can turn in my work anytime during the year and to do them at my own pace," Henry explained when Danny asked.

Danny was a bit surprised by how much schoolwork she was taking on willingly, "Anyway, right now is lunchtime, we're supposed to meet Sam and Tucker—"

"Sam and Tucker! Are they ok?" as if they'd gone into uncharted territory, never to be seen again.

"Uh, they're fine, probably waiting for us right now," he looked back down at all her acquired books, "did you wanna drop some of those off in your locker?"

She cocked her head to the side, "Is that what it's for?"

He stared for a moment, and then said duly, "Yes. That is what a locker is for."

"Ok!" Henry chirped, "but I don't remember where it is."

Danny thought, "I think it's down the hall and to the right, B24 right?"

The scruffy teen pulled out her schedule, where she'd scribbled her locker and combination, "Yup, where's yours?"

"Down that way," he pointed to a hall directly to their right, "will you be able to find your way back ok?"

"Uh-huh!" Henry bounded down the hall in the direction he'd pointed her in.

Danny sighed; the day was almost half way over, he just had to hang in there a few more hours. He made his way to his locker, where Sam and Tucker were already waiting for him.

"Hey Danny," Sam waved, "where's Henry?"

"Hey, she's putting her books in her locker," he said as he turned the dial to open his own, "you'll never guess what she did."

Just when he had opened his locker, a strong hand slammed it closed; three guesses whom it was.

"We never finished our little talk, Fen-toad," Dash sneered at him.

Sam put a hand on her hip, "Don't you have something better to do? Like failing?"

"Where's your new friend?" he pounded a fist against his palm, "I still owe her for making me look like an idiot."

A shiver of anger ran up Danny's spine, "She's not here right now, why don't you just leave her alone?" he growled.

The jock glared down at him, then grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and lifted him up off the ground, "Then maybe I'll take it out of your hide instead."

"_LEAVE HIM ALONE!"_ came a loud scream from half way down the hall stopped most of the crowd of passers-by.

Henry stood, her hands clenched into tight fists at her sides, a look of absolute rage on her face, and it almost looked like her hair was standing on end. The trio had never really seen her angry before, so this was quite a shock. There weren't really any words to describe it, but to put it simply: Henry was pissed.

Dash smirked, dropped Danny and strode to the scruffy teen, he leaned in, "And what are you gonna do about it dweeb?"

It almost looked like it was in slow motion and even echoed, no one was even sure it had actually happened at first, not even Dash. Henry had punched him straight in the jaw, knocking him back several steps. To the trio, it was like watching a bad horror movie unravel. Dash was once again dumbstruck that someone had actually hit him; that had _never_ happened to him before.

Henry's blood was boiling as she shouted, "Not so fun when the little ones fight back, is it?"

At about this point, everyone in the hall had stopped to stare at the spectacle, they were in absolute shock.

"You are _pathetic_!" she continued, "You think that hurting people smaller than you makes you cool, that it somehow means you are better than everyone! _You are not_! It just means that _you _are the weak one! If you think you are so tough, pick a fight with someone your own size that you actually can stand on equal terms with, or are you afraid of losing? You hurt the little weaker ones because you know you can beat them, but you do not have the _balls _to face someone who can put up a decent—"

Dash returned her punch, knocking her against the lockers, causing her to squeal sharply in pain, "You shut your mouth and know your place loser!" he shouted down at her.

"Henry!" Danny rushed forward to help her.

That's when she snapped; Henry threw down her bag and shouted loudly as she tackled the quarter back to the ground. She straddled him, digging her heels into his sides to cut off his diaphragm and began repeatedly punched him in the face over and over, her eyes practically red with rage, "_NOT SO FUN WHEN THE LITTLE ONES FIGHT BACK, IS IT? IS IT?_"

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" everyone started chanting.

Dash was much bigger and stronger than she was; he managed to free himself from the suffocating hold she had, grabbed her and flipped her on her back, punching her repeatedly as well.

Danny grabbed Dash's arm and tried to pull him away, "_GET OFF OF HER_!"

The jock angrily swatted him aside and continued his assault. Danny knew he could take him out with his ghost powers, but there were so many people around that doing so would blow his secret identity. Henry still had plenty of fight left, she pulled both feet under her and kicked Dash's stomach as hard as she could. It managed to push him up long enough for her to roll out from underneath him, pounce on his back and put him in a Full Nelson.

Dash stood up and fought madly to loosen her grip, finally resorting to smashing his back against the lockers over and over until her grip faltered. He whipped around and grabbed her collar and raised a fist, Henry grabbed his collar and raised her fist as well.

"Life Of Pi! What is going on here?"

Mr. Lancer pried the brawl apart before either could continue. Dash stepped back and held his stomach and wiped a cut on his lip. Henry fell to her knees, coughing and spitting blood from a cut inside her cheek. Danny, Sam and Tucker were almost instantly at her side, checking her injuries.

The battered teen then spit one of her teeth into her palm, "Aw man, I really liked that tooth," she joked while gasping.

It would have been funnier if it wasn't such a serious fight, but right now, nothing was funny. Danny helped her to her feet; her adrenaline rush was gone so her body was shaky and weak.

"Mr. Baxter! To the Principal's office!" then Lancer turned to Danny and his friends, "Take her to the nurse's office to get patched up, then go to the Principal's office as well," Lancer grabbed Dash's jacket roughly to guide him.

Henry laughed painfully and said to Dash just before he was out of earshot, "Not so fun when the little ones fight back, is it?"

…

The trio waited outside the nurse's office while Henry's injuries were tended to. Danny felt absolutely horrible; he could have taken Dash on, he really could have if he needed to. But he let his friend take the fall, worst of all was that he didn't help her, he just let that bully beat her almost senseless. Some friend _he_ turned out to be.

"Quit beating yourself up about it," Sam could tell what he was thinking as she rubbed his back, "it wasn't your fault."

"But I could have stopped him," he put his face in his hands, "this wouldn't have happened to if she wasn't trying to stand up for me."

"Dash pretty much said he was gonna try to beat her up anyway," Tucker spoke up, "would you rather he beat her up alone away from everyone where he wouldn't be caught instead of practically in Lancer's doorway?"

Danny looked up at him, "That's not very reassuring."

"I'm just saying," Tucker defended, failing to make a point.

The door opened slowly the teen girl limped out of the office, carefully led by the nurse. She had a couple butterfly band-aids holding a long cut along her left eyebrow closed, a piece of gauze was tucked into the cheek that had been cut. She carried an ice pack in her left hand that she rested on the side of her head to soothe a goose egg forming.

Danny examined her, "Are you ok? How are you feeling?" he was almost afraid to touch her as if she'd break.

She smiled weakly, "Considering I got my butt kicked pretty bad, I'm feeling great."

"I'm really sorry this happened to you," he hung his head in shame.

Henry blinked, and then waved a hand, "Beh, no worries, I live with Uncle Rege, remember? I go through this all the time. Plus, "she held up her right fist triumphantly, "I've always wanted to tell off a bully, it was awesome!"

Sam looked at her right hand and noticed it was bandaged, "How did you hurt your hand? I understand the injuries on your face, but I don't recall anything that happened to your hands."

The scruffy teen looked down at her hand, smirked and looked back up, "I cut it on Dash's jaw, I hope it'll leave a scar" then she shuffled her feet, "Sorry I wasted your lunch break."

Tucker laughed, "It's all good dude, it was totally worth it to see someone finally take a swing at that jerk."

"Yeah, anyway, I still have to go to the Principal's office, wanna help me get there?"

"Sure," Danny said quickly, gently pulling her arm over his shoulder.

Henry didn't protest because she was absolutely exhausted. Danny could feel her shaking, making him feel even worse. He inwardly vowed not to let this happen to her ever again; next time _he_ would be the one standing up for _her_.

It didn't take them too long to get to the Principal's office; it was just down the hall from the nurse's office. They could hear muffled voices from inside, obviously someone scolding Dash. That sound seemed to make Danny feel somewhat better, knowing that the quarter back was going to pay for what he'd done. He reluctantly released Henry so she could join the little meeting, she was still limping and it brought back his guilt.

"Oh wait! I almost forgot!" she turned back to Danny and dug around in her pocket, fishing out an item in her fist, "Open your palm."

The raven-haired teen was confused but held out his hand. Henry dropped the small item into his hand. He studied it and finally realized what it was: it was the tooth she lost in the fight.

The scruffy teen slowly pulled the gauze out of her mouth and smiled, revealing the gap that the tooth belonged to, "That tooth is really the only thing I lost in the fight, you can keep it as a souvenir to remember the time your friend wouldn't let anyone push you around," then she stuffed the gauze back into her mouth and went into the office to face whatever punishment might ensue for brawling on school property.

Tucker looked down at the tooth in Danny's hand and wrinkled his nose, "Dude, that's totally gross."

"Yeah, sweet, but gross," Sam shrugged.

Danny stared at it for the longest time, contemplating what to do with it. He then decided to put it in his pocket for safekeeping.

…

Danny had decided to linger and walk Henry to her next class after she was finished with the Principal. Sam and Tucker left for their next class as there was no real reason for them to wait since Danny was already there. He was mostly worried that she was still too sore to make it to her next class, but the thought also crossed his mind that Dash would try something again out of the way of the eyes of teachers.

It was still several minutes later before the door finally opened, startling the raven-haired teen. Henry stepped out with a giant yet painful grin, and Dash looked beyond the point of enraged, stomping passed without even looking at Danny. Something serious must have happened.

Mr. Lancer followed them and saw Danny standing there, "And what are you doing Mr. Fenton?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, uh, I wanted to make sure Henry got to class ok," he scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Very well, then you get to your next class as well," as he left for his own class that he had been away from during this fiasco.

Henry was walking better on her own, even though she was still walking slowly with a limp. _Hopefully this day ends soon_, Danny thought to himself, _she really looks like she just needs to lie down and recover_.

As soon as they were out of earshot of the Principal and other teachers, Danny finally asked, "What happened in there?"

The redhead turned to face him, still smiling with glee, "Dash got kicked off the football team."

Danny almost looked like he was about to have an accident, "Wait, what?"

"Here's the story," Henry began, "the Principal took one look at the size difference between us and the damage he had done, told him it was a disgrace for what he had done and this should not be a reflection on the school and the football team, even if he was the winning star. So until further notice, he's kicked off the team. We were both sentenced to two weeks of detention, but I'm ok with that because I can just read my books and do my homework."

"Wow," the teen boy's jaw was dropped almost all the way to the floor, "no wonder he's so pissed off, and you _do_ realize that now you're basically number one on the hit list of everyone on the team, right?"

"Yeah," she leaned her head against his shoulder as they walked, "but I have you and Sam and Tucker looking out for me, right?"

Danny blushed bright red as he thought about it, "Yeah."

…

Third period was over; Danny met back up with Henry to make sure she got to her next class without getting jumped or that she could actually make it. He felt really bad about how injured she was on his account; he wanted to make for absolute certain that she'd be ok for the rest of the day.

Henry stomped out of the classroom angrily, "Chemistry sucks!"

"Huh?" Danny raised an eyebrow.

"You have to memorize all these different categories and groups of different kinds of chemistry and chemical laws and the periodic table of elements and its' properties, do you know the abbreviation for gold?"

"No," Danny said quietly.

"Au! There _is_ no 'a' or 'u' in the word gold!" Henry growled and shook her new Chemistry book, "Why can't you be more simple!"

The raven-haired teen laughed, _Looks like there's at least one thing she isn't good at_. Just then, at one of the most inconvenient of times, Danny's ghost sense went off and he shivered.

Henry stopped her ranting, "Uh oh."

There was a loud crash as the wall was torn open. There was a familiar shriek before the zombie ghost appeared, but it looked different. The best way to describe it was as if it was a Pokémon that just evolved. Its' appearance was much harsher, it was more detailed than before, but it still didn't have anything below the waist, other than its' spine had extended a bit like a long tailbone. It shrieked again and students scattered everywhere screaming.

"Geez, does this thing have some sort of vendetta against you?"

"I have a lot of repeat encounters with certain ghosts," he said with a groan as he searched for a safe place to transform.

"Danny! Henry!" they heard Sam call out.

"Sam! Tucker! We're over here!" the redhead shouted back as she saw her two friends run around the corner.

"Man," Tucker groaned, "I thought we got rid of this guy the first time, Danny, you'd better—"

He had already disappeared to find a safe place to go ghost. Sam threw down her backpack and fished around for the Fenton thermos, "Good thing we keep this thing on hand."

The zombie ghost shrieked again and swiped a large clawed hand at the trio, but it was thankfully blasted apart by an ectoplasmic blast. Danny Phantom flew by and delivered a hard kick to the side of its' neck, causing it to flinch momentarily before it grabbed his leg and flung him to the other side of the room.

"Dude! Go for the head!" the techno-geek shouted, "remember last time?"

"Oh yeah," the ghost boy rubbed his head painfully.

The zombie ghost didn't give him a chance to react; it was much faster this time. It tackled him hard against the wall, using his body to dent the wall and crack it. Danny grunted painfully and went to blast it in the head as he had before, but it easily dodged the shot. It wrapped the base of its' spine around the ghost teen's neck like a whip and shook he violently around the room, smashing him against tables and shelves, shattering beakers and test tubes.

Just then, a thick Chemistry book beaned it in the side of the face, "Stop hurting him!" Henry shouted.

It turned in her direction and shrieked angrily, distracting it long enough for Danny to slip through its' grip and blast it in the back of the head. It screamed in pain then slumped forward, powerless against its' one weakness.

Sam used the Fenton thermos to trap it once again, "Hopefully it'll stay in the ghost zone this time," she tossed it up and caught it.

The hall was empty, as all the students had fled from the attack, so it was safe for Danny to change back into a human without being seen, "Yeah, but if it does, we at least know its' weakness."

Henry ran to Danny, "Are you ok? Did it bang you up too much?" she patted him down for broken bones or other injuries.

"Oh, I' fine," Danny said sheepishly, "this stuff happens all the time, after a while it just stops hurting."

The redhead laughed, "I know how that goes," then she patted his chest, "but I am glad you're ok. Now, where's my Chemistry book?"

The room was torn apart, a gaping hole through the window and wall showed where the ghost had burst in. Desks and tables were upturned, broken glass everywhere. The teen girl carefully sifted through the rubble and found her book, dirty and the cover scratched, but still in one piece. She looked around her demolished science room, somehow slightly pleased.

"Does this mean Chemistry is cancelled this year?" she said hopefully.

Tucker laughed, "Unfortunately not dude, they'll just move it to a different room."

"Crap in a hat," Henry growled.

…

It seemed somewhat redundant to keep school in session for the day, since many kids took off for home to hide from the ghost attack and the building was fairly trashed. Everyone was excused for the rest of the day, as there was no real point in finished the day. Mr. Lancer had also excused Henry and Dash from detention for that day, but they would pick back up on it tomorrow when the panic had quelled.

The quartet walked to Henry's locker to pick up one particular book she wanted to get started on. She opened her locker with a punch and books almost came pouring out, but were thankfully caught before they all fell out.

"Dude! You weren't kidding when you said she got herself a lot of homework!" Tucker stared at the pile of books.

"But it'll be so much fun, I've never read this one before," she held up a book entitled '_The Gulag Archipelago_.' She studied the cover, "Not sure what it's about, but Mr. Lancer asked me to read it, so I'll give it a shot."

"And what's wrong with '_Where the Red Fern Grows'_? Other than being boring as heck?" Tucker raised an eyebrow.

"The dogs die and the family moves into town," Henry gave away the ending.

"Hey! That's not cool," Sam put a hand on her hip.

"What?" the scruffy teen closed her locker, "that book is a reading level of grade 4 and up, it's a kid's novel. I think Mr. Lancer is starting off slowly so as not to overload the class before he moves to other books like '_Pride and Prejudice_,' and just letting you know, that one can be very easy to get lost in if you don't pay close enough attention. That's all I'm gonna say about that."

They could hear loud shouting and stomping as several jocks marched down the hall, obviously looking for the person that may have just cost them their season.

"Fen-toenail! I've got a bone to pick with your girlfriend!" Dash pointed angrily.

Before the raven-haired teen could answer, Henry spoke up, "He's not my boyfriend! I haven't asked him out yet!"

Danny blushed but quickly grabbed Henry's sleeve and pulled her down the hallway and around the corner, Sam and Tucker following behind.

"What's going on you guys?" Tucker shouted as they followed their friends.

"Dash got kicked off the football team for beating up Henry, " Danny threw over his shoulder and darted down a corridor and downstairs in an attempt to lose the crowd.

They stopped to rest on a platform of the stairs in the shadows, "Oh man, she's going to get her butt kicked for that!" Sam breathed.

"I know," Danny said, "so I've been trying to make sure not to leave her alone in case they try to make a move."

"So how is she gonna get out of the building without being seen?" Tucker panted.

"Well, I could probably fly her home if we stay invisible," Danny mentioned.

Henry raised her hands up high above her head and waved frantically, "Why with all the flying? Can't we walk like normal people?"

The raven-haired teen raised an eyebrow, "Uh, I'm not really normal, and sometimes using my ghost powers comes in handy. It'll be faster and no one will be able to follow you home."

The redhead contemplated, "Ok, but I wanna ride on your back this time."

"That's fine—"

He didn't get to finish as she jumped on his back without warning. Danny almost lost his balance, but she was fairly light so he was able to catch himself. They heard the sound of footsteps running down the stairs; no doubt the football team had caught their trail and was still after them.

"You guys get going," Sam said as she pushed Tucker along, "we'll distract them long enough to give you a head start," and they continued running down the stairs.

Just before the jocks caught up to the platform they were on, Danny turned them both invisible and intangible so the bullies ran right by without seeing them, Henry still clinging to his back somewhat fearfully.

As soon as they were gone, Danny hooked his arms under her legs and shifted her into a more comfortable position, "All right, are you ready?"

"Yeah," she squeezed him tight again, "just go before I change my mind."

She didn't have to tell him twice; he flew up through the roof and took off toward her house. Henry could feel the wind blowing against her face and looked down. This time she wasn't quite so scared, as there was a body between her and the ground this time. The redhead began to relax against Danny's back in security.

Something popped back into Danny's mind as they flew; he blushed and decided to ask, "So, uh, what did you mean by, 'I haven't asked him out _yet_'?"

Henry stopped her train of thought, "Hmm? Oh yeah, well, I have the full intention to ask you out, but right now I don't think either of us are ready yet," she said matter-of-factly, "Plus I don't really know how boyfriends and girlfriends really act, I'll have to figure that out first."

"Oh," Danny said simply as they flew, _Is she being serious or joking?_ Sometimes her mannerisms were really hard to read.

…

They continued to fly in silence after that; Danny wasn't really sure what to say after that. It had been a very exhausting first day of school for both of them. Zombies and bullies and books, oh my.

"Hey Henry, we're here," Danny said as they touched down in her yard; she didn't respond, "Henry?"

He nudged her with his shoulder, only to discover she'd fallen asleep. The ghost teen sighed lightly and flew her up through the attic window in the back that led to her room.

Danny hadn't been up there since she first moved in, but it looked like she was a little better set up. There was a small, twin-sized bed up against the wall under the window; an old handmade light blue-green quilt lay across the neatly made bed. A small nightstand sat next to the head of the bed, a clock and old lamp were set up on top of it. There was the cedar chest on the other side of the room for what little clothing she had—she always wore the same clothes so she probably didn't have many—and a large round mirror on the wall.

He gently laid her down on her bed, took off her backpack and set it on the floor next to her bed. Danny looked down and brushed a bit of hair from her face, his hand accidentally brushed over her cheek stuffed with gauze. He frowned at the thought of her injury, and then stood back up when he thought she'd be all right and flew out of her house and back to his own room.

Danny arched his back and stretched; he was pretty tired himself and decided a nap would be a good idea. He kicked off his shoes and set his backpack down, then flopped onto his bed. He felt something in his pocket and reached in to find the tooth Henry gave him earlier. The teen ghost set it lazily on his desk and thought to himself, _Would I say yes?_ But he didn't answer his question as he drifted off to sleep.

…

_Day two_, Danny thought to himself with a sigh as he walked down the street to walk Henry to school. He hoped today would go much more smoothly than yesterday, seriously, how much more trouble can she get herself into? First, , piling on a bunch of homework that would be impossible for anyone to do, then unintentionally picking a fight with Dash. Hopefully these next classes were subjects she bombed at like Chemistry and wouldn't take on more work.

This morning, Henry was leaning against the fence again, only this time wide-awake with her face buried intently in the book Mr. Lancer gave her.

She heard his footsteps coming down the sidewalk and looked up, "Good morning Danny!" she chirped in her normal upbeat manner, "How are you feeling this fine day?"

The raven-haired teen raised an eyebrow, "Uh, I'm ok, what about you? You feeling ok after yesterday?"

"I'm feeling great! Except this book is absolutely horrifying," she held it up and swatted the cover of 'The Gulag Archipelago', "I can't believe they let sixteen-year-olds read this stuff."

"Well, you _do_ seem to read at a higher grade level than most of us," he shrugged, "But seriously, are you feeling ok?"

It took the redhead a moment to realize what he was referring to, "Oh, I'm fine, not really sore or anything, except this," she pulled back her lip to reveal the gap where she once had an upper left molar, "do I look like trailer trash with missing teeth?"

Danny cocked his head to the side, "Well, when you smile it actually looks kinda cute, like a little kid," he said truthfully.

Henry laughed, "I just hope I don't whistle when I talk, do you know how much it'd suck if it messed up my singing? Because it'd suck."

"I'll bet," he said with a slight chuckle.

"Anyway, time to go to school!" she snagged his sleeve and pulled him down the sidewalk, then stopped and dragged him the other way, "Oh yeah, school is _this _way."

As they walked, Danny suddenly became aware of a black and grey striped cat following them.

Henry turned back and kneeled down to it, "No Cheshire, you can't come to school with me, you have to stay home," as the cat rubbed up against her legs and she stroked him.

"Who's that?" the raven-haired teen raised an eyebrow.

"It's the stray cat that lives under my porch," she looked up at him, "I befriended him and named him Cheshire. He likes to follow me around," she stood up and looked back at the cat, "Now Cheshire, you need to go home, you can't come with me."

He meowed longingly, then turned and walked back to her house up on the hill. Henry turned and kept walking, Danny shortly behind her.

"So how come he didn't follow us yesterday?"

"Oh, he didn't know you and was probably scared last time," the redhead smiled back at him, "but I think he saw you bring me home so he probably decided you were ok. I just hope he stays home, I don't want him getting hit by a car or anything."

…

"Hi guys!" Henry smiled when she saw Sam and Tucker, "How're you guys today?"

"Doing pretty good," Sam returned the smile, "what about you? Still sore?"

"Nope, I feel great!" the redhead waved her arms in the air, "Can't wait for another day of school, but doesn't the schedule change or something?" she pulled out her folded piece of paper, "Because this says I have eight classes but I only remember four. Well, three technically after we were sent home early."

"Yeah," Tucker pointed down her schedule, "The days rotate so we have longer classes but not the same four everyday. So it looks like you have," he browsed down the paper, "Computer technology, then Gym, then Home Economics, and last Biology."

"Wait, she has two science classes?" Danny looked over his shoulder, referring to Chemistry and now Biology.

"Looks like it," the techno-geek handed back her schedule.

"Yeah, the only class I'm worried about is Computer Technology, I've never really used one so I'm gonna be pretty far behind," the scruffy teen pumped a fist in the air, "But I can do it with the power of learning!"

"Yeah," Danny furrowed him brow, "I'm just worried about the football team trying to hurt you again today."

"I'm not," Henry folded up her schedule and stuffed it in her jeans pocket, "since I'm not feeling sore, I should be able to outrun them if they decide to chase me," she then cocked her head to the side, "don't I have detention today after school?"

"Yeah, with Dash," Danny shuddered.

"Cool, this'll be fun!"

"Uh, how?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I can read my books, and if Dash is in the classroom being watched by Mr. Lancer, he can't jump me in the hall or anything later."

The trio kind of understood what she was saying, but it was still a concern. They all marched into the school to get to their next class, hopefully there wouldn't be a repeat of yesterday. But something was strange about today, people kept passing them in the hall to talk to Henry.

"Hey, I heard I decked Dash yesterday," one of the unpopular kids said as they patted her on the back, "Way to go!"

"Yeah! That was awesome!" another raised his hand for a high five, to which Henry raised her hand timidly to meet his high five.

Mikey passed by, "That jerk has been needing that for a long time."

The chatter continued around her, but she didn't quite understand what the big deal was.

"Dude!" a geek shook the redhead's shoulder enthusiastically, "You're like a hero now after that!"

She looked at him in confusion, "What did I do?"

"What do you mean?" he almost tripped over himself, "you showed that bully whose boss!"

Henry turned around and sighed as she kept walking, "Great, I'm gonna be known as the girl who punched Dash for the rest of the year."

"Well, you gotta admit," Tucker shrugged, "that was pretty epic what you did."

"You mean not letting someone push my friend around? How is _that_ epic? Shouldn't people _always_ stick up for their friends?"

Henry had a point, but it was still pretty cool what she did for Danny.

But as if karma came to bite her in the butt, several overly attractive girls stomped toward the scruffy teen angrily.

"Let me guess," Henry groaned, "You guys are cheerleaders."

Paulina led the pack, "You've got a lot of nerve being here and gloating after what you did to Dash yesterday."

She raised an eyebrow; "You mean this?" she smiled and pointed to the gap in her teeth, "That I wanted to lose my favorite tooth by beating my face repeatedly with his fist?"

"You think you're so funny don't you?" Paulina pointed.

"Actually, I am quite hilarious, but apparently my humor goes wasted on people who put more time into temporary beauty rather than an education that actually takes you somewhere in life."

The trio was shocked; Henry spit such venom and malice at the cheerleaders, it was another side of her anger they'd never seen from her, not like yesterday.

Paulina couldn't believe what she was hearing, "Care to run that by me again dweeb?"

"Gladly," Henry stood her ground, "Let me rephrase it in a language you might understand. 'Like oh my god! You are, like, a total idiot and would not get anywhere if you like did not look like a twelve-year-old with curves.' Do I need to run _that_ by you again?"

_Please don't start another fight, please don't start another fight_, Danny pleaded in his head.

Sam decided to intervene, "Knock it off Paulina, Dash got what he deserved and you know it, now go sulk somewhere where someone actually cares."

She was getting red in the face, "He didn't do _anything_ to warrant getting kicked off the football team and costing us the season this year! She's messed up our school's winning streak all because she didn't keep her mouth shut and stay in her place!"

"That's it!" Henry threw down her backpack and stalking toward Paulina, rolling up her sleeves, "Let's go!" causing Paulina to momentarily shy away in fear.

_Oh great_, both Danny and Tucker grabbed her arms before she had a repeat of yesterday. Henry flailed in their arms as they dragged her away, shouting something that didn't quite sound like a human language in her anger.

"You're a freak!" Pauline shouted after them.

"And _you _are a pompous brat," Sam turned and followed her friends.

As soon as they were a safe distance away from everyone, Danny and Tucker released the struggling girl, who turned to them and growled, "Why did you stop me? That monster needs to be taught a lesson about what it means to have a brain!"

"Right now is not a good time to start another fight," Danny hissed through clenched teeth.

Henry glared up at him, blazing hatred still in her eyes, "The only thing I hate more than jocks are cheerleaders! They are the same thing except one wears a helmet and one wears a skirt, and I have to share a restroom the latter!"

"Dude, calm down," Tucker held up his hands.

"_I AM CALM_!"

They weren't convinced in the least.

"I do not mind getting anymore detention if it means showing those stuck up beauty queens what really matters!"

"But _we_ care because _we_ are the ones that have to cover for you when you start fights!" Danny shouted back at her, a bit louder and harsher than he should have.

All the anger Henry had a moment ago dissipated after her friend's outburst. She suddenly felt like a real douche; here were the only friends she'd ever had and she was making them deal with the aftermath of her brawls.

She looked down and twiddled her fingers, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lost my temper over those creeps."

Danny suddenly felt bad for yelling at her, he sighed in exasperation, "It's ok, just please don't do it again, ok?"

Henry looked back up at him and smiled, "Ok, I promise."

…

Computer Technology went better than Henry expected. With her newfound respect among the geek community, everyone was willing to help her out, almost even fighting for her attention. It was a bit overwhelming and as soon as the bell rang, the scruffy teen left as quickly as she could to meet her friends for gym class, thankfully they had that class together too.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker changed into gym clothes, but Henry didn't know she was supposed to have any. The gym teacher allowed it to slide today since she was still new.

"So what would you like us to do today?" Henry smiled up at her teacher.

"Today we will be doing the mile run as fast as you can. The mile marker is running four times around the track," she seemed unamused by the scruffy teen's enthusiasm.

"Ok!" Henry took her hoodie off and tied it around her waist, then got down on her hands and feet in a position ready to take off.

Several other students groaned and joined her on the track, including Dash, who was hell bent on outdoing her in the one thing he was good at. Danny sighed, then the thought crossed his mind, _How fast does she plan on running? The teacher said as fast as we can, so does that mean—_

"Go!" she shouted as she hit her stopwatch.

Sure enough, Henry took off at top speed, her feet practically leaving dent marks in the track. Everyone was taken aback by how fast she could run, Dash growled and tried to catch up. It would most likely take most of the class almost the entire period to run the whole mile, as many would tire quickly and wouldn't be able to keep their initial pace. But the trio knew all too well Henry's speed and endurance; she jumped across buildings in her spare time for goodness sake!

The rest of the class had just made it just over a quarter of the way through the first round as the scruffy teen ran right passed them as she continued to run 'as fast as she could'. Needless to say, Dash was more than a little ticked off that she was passing him so easily. Henry finally finished the mile and she skid to a stop in front of the teacher and looked up at her. Everyone had just finished their first round; Dash was right behind her when she stopped and he almost tripped over her, stumbling to the side and falling face first on the track.

"Now what would you like me to do?" Henry panted slightly.

The teacher looked shocked, "You seriously ran the mile that quickly?"

"You told me to run as fast as I can," and she smiled, "and I had to learn how to run fast to outrun a truck."

"Well, do it again!" the coach said in frustration.

"Ok!" the scruffy teen took off again, stepping on Dash's face as she passed without noticing him.

He growled loudly and got back up to continue his first mile. In no time at all, Henry had passed everyone up again and stopped in front of the teacher, panting a bit harder this time.

"Would you like me to do it again?" she wiped a bead of sweat from her brow.

"Humph!" the coach tried to sound unimpressed, "Keep going until I tell you to stop!"

"Ok!"

It was still a few more laps, continuing to pass other classmates as they still struggled their mile. Danny, Sam, and Tucker were used to her doing this type of thing all the time, but it probably wasn't something that she should be showing off in class; this was definitely drawing a lot of attention.

The teen finally stopped, "I'm sorry, I can't go anymore," as she walked tiredly to the lawn and collapsed on her back, panting hard, her chest felt like it was going to explode, "I don't think I'm gonna be doing that again for a while."

Everyone finished up their mile, exhausted in their own way. Danny and Tucker were completely pooped; Sam still had some energy, being in better shape than they were. Dash was still pissed; he stomped over to Henry to give her a piece of his mind.

The redhead looked up and saw him coming, "Oh hi jerk, what's up?"

The jock lifted her up by the collar of her tank top, "Listen up loser! I don't know how you did that, but _no one_ outdoes me in something I'm the best at!"

She looked down at her shirt, and then back up at Dash, "Can you please put me down? I'm sure the teacher would love to see you fighting with me again."

He wanted to retort, but threw her back into the grass, "Whatever loser," and walked off in a huff.

Sam watched but then strode over to Henry to help her up, "Probably not the best idea to taunt Dash right now."

"What?" she lowered her tank top back down where it was supposed to be. She sat back down in the grass, "Man! I'm exhausted! I hope I can still outrun those bullies if they come after me."

…

Henry put her head under the cold running water in the drinking fountain, cooing at how nice it felt. Her friends had changed back into their regular clothes and were getting ready to go to their next class.

"Dude, you need to keep some of those mad skills under your belt," Tucker pointed, "you're going to attract too much attention and that's not really something you need."

The scruffy teen flipped her short wet hair back, still panting, "I was just doing what the teacher told me to do."

"But you _do_ need to chill out a bit. English, Math, and now Track, people are going to get suspicious about you being this amazing 'do it all' prodigy. Is there even anything you can't do?"

Henry thought for a moment, "I can't pee standing up," then she looked back at them questioningly, "are you guys trying to tell me I shouldn't be trying to challenge myself to learn more? I didn't know there was an intellect restriction."

Tucker suddenly felt bad for somewhat scolding her for just doing what she does best, "That's not what I meant. I just mean if you're trying to keep a low profile, showing off in front of everyone isn't the best idea."

The scruffy teen frowned, took out her schedule to look over it, "Next I have Home Economics," she turned and started walking away, "maybe I'll burn the pancakes or sew my hand to a pillowcase or something so I don't look like I know what I'm doing," she said sadly.

Danny glared at his friend, "Nice going Tucker."

"What?" he threw his hands in the air, "you seriously don't think I'm making a point? If she's good at everything, she's just going to make herself a bigger target for punishment from more people like Dash."

"We know what you mean Tucker," Sam reasoned, "but she's just trying to do what she's been told. Remember she's never been to a school before, this is supposed to be an exciting thing for her, so she's just trying to do her best."

"But seriously!"

Danny tried his luck at calming him down, "It was probably just the way you said it that upset her, we'll probably just have to try to explain it to her later so hopefully she understands what we mean. But right now, I'm getting hungry, let's go to lunch."

He then stopped himself and realized that it was lunchtime and Henry was heading to a class that wasn't open yet.

…

Lunch passed without incident. They all laughed and joked as if nothing happened, though Henry mostly kept her nose buried in her book, eyes wide looking at the pages of what she had described earlier as 'horrifying', unable to look away and intent on finishing it. The bell rang to go to their next class; they threw away their leftover scraps and began to make their way to their classes.

They just happened to be passing by the office when they noticed a crowd gathered around the bulletin board. Curious, they pushed in to see what the commotion was. There was a large bright pink paper pinned up that read:

_District Talent Show!_

_One student from each school in the district will be chosen to participate for a reward of $100,000 toward their school's funds. Try-outs will be held in the assembly theater in 3 weeks. Come share your talents with classmates and you could have a chance to participate for the grand prize!_

Sam pointed it out to Henry, "You should totally try out! You'd definitely win with your singing or violin."

The scruffy teen was unconvinced, "But I don't want to be a show off, and I don't need to attract anymore attention than I already have."

"Aw come on! You could win that prize money to go toward new books and computers and better programs and curriculum."

"New computers would be totally cool!" Tucker piped in.

Henry thought for a long time, then turned to her other friend, "What about you Danny? What do _you_ think I should do?"

He stopped, then scratched the back of his head, "Well, it's really whatever you wanna do, if you want to try out you should, if not that's fine too. Although getting prize for the school would probably help with the school system here."

She thought for quite a while, "Ok, I'll do it," and she fought the crowd to get at the sign up forms on the table, "Dunno if I'd get in or not though."

…

Henry decided not to mess up in Home Economics; sewing through one's hand is quite painfully and she didn't feel like hurting herself to prove a point. They all met up for their last class together, Biology.

Her book intrigued Henry, it sure had a lot of information, but she chose to use it for the moment to hide the fact that she was still reading '_The Gulag Archipelago'_. She almost wasn't paying close enough attention to hear the teacher announce that everyone choose a lab partner for the year, though she didn't know who would want to be her partner. Henry looked around the room to see if there was anyone she even slightly knew that she could be paired with.

"I'll be your lab partner if you want," Danny placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled.

She laughed, "Why are you codling me so much?"

He blinked a few times, "Uh, what do you mean?"

"Let's see," she started counting on her fingers, "you walk me to and from school, you take me to every class and the pick me up from each class, and you're constantly at my side protecting me from whatever bullies wanna do you me."

"Am I?" the raven-haired teen thought to himself, "I hang out close to Sam and Tuck so much that I didn't even notice, guess I'm just looking out for you. You can choose a different lab partner if you want."

"No, I _do_ want you to be my lab partner," she said quickly, "it just seems like you go out of your way quite a bit to make sure I'm ok."

Danny scratched the back of his head, "Well, I guess it's because we live so close we tend to hang out with each other a lot. Plus do you see anyone here you'd wanna be lab partners with?"

"Other than Sam and Tucker," she glanced back at them, "but I guess they can pair up. All right, we'll be lab partners."

"Sounds fine to me," Danny sat back, "and since we live so close, doing labs and homework will be a lot easier."

"This is true!" Henry chimed, and then buried her nose back in her book to hide a blush, "And it'll make it easier when I finally decide to ask you out."

Danny raised a confused eyebrow, "What if _I _asked you out first?"

"You won't," she said matter-of-factly, "You're afraid of rejection, and since you don't know when I'd be ready, you don't know if I'd say yes or no at the time. Remember, my aunt was a Psychology teacher, I learn things."

"Well, what if I ask someone else out?"

"Then it sucks to be me and I blew it."

The bell rang to dismiss class for the day; everyone let out a collective sigh of relief and gathered their stuff to leave. So for the most part, the day had gone much more smoothly, except one last thing.

"I still have detention after school," Henry said as if it was no big deal on the way to her locker to grab another book, as she almost finished her current book.

When they got to her locker, they found that someone had drawn foul words on her locker with a permanent marker. It read horrible words like 'whore' and 'go die'. The trio was mortified, but Henry seemed indifferent. In fact, she actually began to laugh unnecessarily loudly.

"That is freaking hilarious! Me, a whore, ha! How can I be a whore if I am still be a virgin?" she opened her locker with her punch technique, fished out a book and closed it, "Some people should get their facts straight before they go accusing people of such heinous things and also learn proper grammar. I wonder if they can even spell 'heinous'."

"Well, she's taking it well," Sam leaned in to whisper to Danny and Tucker.

They all escorted her to Mr. Lancer's room for detention, Dash had just barely got to the door and glared down at them.

"Hi jerk," Henry smiled, "ready for an hour of quiet time?"

He growled but didn't get to respond before she entered the classroom where they would be in earshot of the English teacher. Dash glared down at the trio before entering for his punishment.

Henry had chosen a seat in the center of the room, Mr. Lancer motioned for Dash to actually sit next to her, "Now, you two are going to have to learn to be more polite to each other, so you'll have to tolerate each other in close proximity."

"Are you serious?" Dash yelled.

"Aw come one," the scruffy teen smiled up at him, "it'll be fun, we can study and read books and compare notes and learn to better ourselves."

"That's a good outlook Miss Cooper, but for the time being, you two shall sit quietly for the next hour until this session of your detention sentence is over," he closed the door to keep them in and whoever else out.

"Ok!," she smiled up at her teacher and opened her book to finish reading.

The jock growled and sat down, glaring daggers at the girl that she either didn't notice or didn't care.

Danny turned to Sam and Tucker, "I'm gonna wait here for Henry to get out and make sure she gets home safe."

"Yeah, we should wait here too," Sam sat down in the hallway.

"Are you sure? You don't have to."

"Dude, we're all friends," Tucker sat down next to Sam, "as Henry said, people should always stick up for their friends. Besides, we can all hang out together after she gets out of detention."

After about fifteen minutes, Danny peeked in the small window in the door, "I'm gonna go check on her," he checked to make sure there was no one who could see him, then he went invisible and intangible and walked through the door.

He saw Mr. Lancer sitting at his desk grading papers and reviewing notes for his lectures for the rest of the week. Henry had her book up in front of her face reading quietly, Dash had his head on the desk, fidgeting in his seat as he waited for each minute to tick by.

Just then, Henry slowly looked up over her book at Mr. Lancer to make sure he's attention was still toward his desk. With her eyes still on her teacher, she slowly leaned sideways toward Dash and whispered, "I'm gonna kill you."

Danny clasped a hand tightly over his mouth to keep from laughing and giving himself away.

Dash flinched and stood up, "You little-!"

"Is there a problem Mr. Baxter?" Mr. Lancer spoke when he saw the tall boy stand up.

"Do you mind?" Henry looked up at him, playing little miss innocent, "I have four more pages until I finish this book and you are interrupting me."

"But-!"

"Sit down Mr. Baxter," the teacher ordered.

He growled and sat back down in his seat. Henry glanced over at him behind her book, and when she made sure Dash was staring at her again, she stuck her tongue out mockingly.

Danny stepped back out of the room and became visible again, "Well, she's handling detention very well."

…

Before they knew it, the hour had passed and the door opened. They jumped up as both teens left the room, Mr. Lancer shortly behind them, "I'll be seeing you two tomorrow."

Dash looked like he was on the edge of absolute rage, Henry wore her usually big smile as she carried her books, "Are we ready?"

"Totally," Tucker said, his boredom showing.

"Ok! Onward!" she grabbed her friends and headed quickly out the front doors, whispering, "We gotta get out of here fast before Dash blows his top."

"Well, you shouldn't be taunting him then," Danny freed himself from her grip.

The scruffy teen released her other friends, "Aw come on, it was just a bit of fun, and he won't dare do anything in front of Mr. Lancer. So for the time being, I feel fairly safe."

"At any rate, we were going to meet up and hang out for a little after you got out of detention, what do you think?"

"Sounds good to me!" she chimed, "I could use a little breather after today."

…

End Chapter 7

…

I think this is my favorite chapter thus far. ^^ And my computer's auto correct seems to have an obsession with semi-colons. . Read and Review!


	8. Henry's Talent

Chapter 8, Henry tries out for the talent show, what happens, lol. Read and review!

Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright to Danny Phantom, this is a fan-based story not meant for profit, please don't sue.

…

Chapter 8: Henry's Talent

…

"So what are you going to do as your talent for tryouts?" Sam asked as they were hanging out at Danny's house working on Biology homework together.

"Not sure," she didn't look up from the notebook paper she was writing on, "I put down the violin, then singing if that fails, why?"

"Dude, the tryouts are tomorrow, did you forget?" Tucker raised an eyebrow.

That's what caught Henry's attention and she looked up, "Oh yeah! I _did _forget! Has it really been three weeks?"

"Yes," Danny mumbled, "Three very long, very boring weeks."

"Wow, time really flies when you're having fun," the redhead reminisced.

Her detention with Dash had finished, so now they were on alert again for getting jumped. She had also already finished and turned in two book reports, one on '_The Gulag Archipelago_' and the other on '_Hiroshima_', both she simply described as absolutely horrifying. Most of her spare time was spent on homework, but she still spent her daylight hours hanging out with her friends. Though they didn't like her doing so much work all at once, Henry explained that the sooner she got it all done, the sooner she'd have free time during the rest of the year.

"Maybe I should head home to practice while Uncle Rege is still at work, otherwise I won't get any practice in," the scruffy teen started packing her books and papers into her overflowing backpack.

"Aw come on!" Tucker protested, "Homework is so much harder when you aren't here to help out!"

Henry crouched in the windowsill with her backpack and turned to smile back at her friend, "Then I guess you'll just have to study a little harder, eh?" and she jumped out the window, landing easily on the sidewalk and walked away as if nothing unusual had happened.

Tucker pouted, "She could have at least left her notes for us to look at."

"I really wish she'd use the door like a normal person," Danny said under his breath.

There was a long silence as they tried their best to answer questions like the differences between plant and animal cells and remember the definitions of 'Nucleus' and 'Mitochondria'. Yeah, homework was definitely easier with Henry here. Though it was still funny that she refused to even touch her Chemistry book, claiming it was 'written by witches' and incomprehensible, like she didn't care much about failing that particular class.

…

The next day, Henry came to school carrying her violin case, though she seemed dismal about it.

"What are you so sad about? Shouldn't you be excited?" Tucker raised an eyebrow.

"Not really," she sighed, "I don't like playing for competition, I like playing for fun. It doesn't feel like so much pressure."

"What pressure?" Sam shrugged, "This should be for fun."

The redhead raised an eyebrow, "And participating for the possible prize money is competition."

"Well, think of it as doing a school assignment, you seem to be doing good at those," Sam looked up, "and you could show up Miss Popularity over there."

Paulina had entered the talent show tryouts as well. When she spotted Henry, she smirked and strode toward her, "So, I see you're going out for the talent show, huh dork? Well, you're gonna fail hardcore in front of the whole school when I beat you."

Henry's hair bristled lightly, her grip tightened on the case handle, "What are you going to do? Show everyone how to put on lipstick properly? Flash a little snatch in a dance routine?" as she walked passed her in irritation.

"Tryouts aren't until after school, so there's plenty of time to practice failing," Paulina called after her.

"And plenty of time for you to practice breaking a leg," Sam growled as she walked passed the cheerleader.

"Come one, you'll do fine," Danny patted her on the back.

"Oh, I know I'll do fine, but it doesn't mean I have to enjoy it," Henry continued to walk, "Anyway, let's get to class, I can't wait to see the look on Mr. Lancer's face when I drop a third finished book report on his desk."

…

Oh yes, the look on Mr. Lancer's face was priceless. He even tried to offer to give her more work, but she refused, since she still had four more books to go through. Everyone had finished '_Where the Red Fern Grows_' and were working on what to do for their reports, though it frustrated some of them that the scruffy teen was so far ahead. Not her fault that she can read fast, right?

But today for math class, there was a substitute teacher, as their regular teacher was sick with a bad cold. Since the substitute had no idea what their curriculum for the day was, she basically let the class just do whatever they wanted for the rest of the period, much to Henry's distress, as everyone was being too noisy for her to concentrate on Trigonometry, which was much harder than their Pre-algebra.

Lunchtime rolled around and the quartet met to eat their lunch outside where it was a bit quieter and to get some fresh air. Henry also insisted on eating outside since she could tune her violin and practice in peace. They had chosen to sit under a tree; the redhead chose to sit on a branch above their heads, trying to hide from prying eyes as she practiced.

"It sounds fine," Danny said after the fourth time she tuned it.

Henry didn't pay him too much mind, "A properly tuned instrument can mean the difference between success and failure. If it's flat, it sounds like a cat is choking on nails," she turned a few knobs one final time, "I think that'll do it."

"So what are you thinking of playing?" Sam asked as she took a bite of her sandwich.

"Probably Music of the Night, it's my favorite song, wanna listen and tell me what you think?"

Tucker leaned back, "Why not? Dinner and a show sounds nice to me."

"Well, it's not dinner, but ok," she rested the instrument against her shoulder gently.

It started up slowly and quietly; it sounded just like her little music box at home. She swayed her body slightly to keep the tempo. The trio just listened, mesmerized by it, it was like being at an actually symphony. Henry closed her eyes as a dramatic part of the song came, concentrating on bringing the soul out of the strings. She then stopped in the middle and shook her left hand.

"Geez, it's been so long since I've picked this thing up, the calluses on my fingers have worn down," then picked it back up where she left off and finished the song.

All three applauded, "Bravissima!" Sam shouted.

"That was awesome!" Tucker said with a fist pump.

The scruffy teen raised an eyebrow and smirked, "Oh, that's nothing compared to this," she picked up her violin and leaned forward slightly for more support.

She started up on the fastest song they had ever heard, she watched her fingers closely to make sure she the expertly hit each string in time. It was so loud and dramatic that several kids stopped to stare at what was making that sound. Henry made dramatic movements as the song hit its' climax, and then it ended it seemed almost as quickly as it started. This time more people than just her friends clapped and cheered, causing the redhead to duck her head in embarrassment.

"Now _that_ was totally cool!" Danny said, "What was that anyway?"

"Flight of the Bumblebee," Henry said as she let her violin sit in her lap, "Haven't played that in years, can't believe I can still play it that fast."

Sam was about to speak up when something wet hit her cheek. That was strange; she wiped her cheek and it was a red fluid. She looked up in shock, "Henry! Your hand!"

The scruffy teen was confused, and then looked down at her left hand. Blood dripped down her fingertips where the violin strings had cut into her fingers, "Ow."

…

"Well, looks like my violin career is on hold for a while," Henry said as she flexed her fingers, now neatly bandaged by the school nurse.

"Sorry about your hand dude," Tucker looked somehow remorseful.

The redhead looked at him for a moment then smiled, "What are you sorry about? It was my own dang fault I did it. But it looks like I'll be singing for the talent show after all."

"Is that a bad thing?" Danny raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I like the violin best, but even though I don't like singing quite as much, I _am_ better at it, so I should get in ok," she read her paper, "It says here that these are tryouts to get accepted into the first competition, then there will be the actually show where the district administrator will attend and chose the person in each school to participate in the district competition."

Sam laughed, "We've still got a few more hours until school gets out, so we should probably head to our next classes."

"But I don't wanna go to Chemistry," Henry pouted.

"Think about it this way," Tucker reasoned, "The sooner you go to class, the sooner it's over, and the sooner it's over, the soon we can get to tryouts."

"All right, sounds good to me!" she chimed in her upbeat manner, "But it doesn't mean I have to like it."

"No one said you had to like it," Danny shrugged, "you just have to make it through it."

The scruffy teen put on her victory face, "Then onward!" she shouted.

…

Same as always, Henry ranted and raved about how much she hated Chemistry when it was let out. Her last class was American History, which wasn't so bad. Henry didn't excel above the class, but she didn't bomb it like her previous class. But finally, the bell rang for school to let out. Teens scattered everywhere, some scrambling just to get home, others to prepare for the talent show.

The redhead had carefully stuffed her violin case into her locker so she wouldn't have to needlessly carry it around and trudged down the hall toward the auditorium for tryouts. She almost seemed sad about it, but was still nervous and excited at the same time.

"You'll be fine," Tucker reassured her, "and we'll be there for support so you've got nothing to worry about."

"I just know that stupid Paulina is gonna get in," Henry growled, "only because she's on the cheer squad," then she smirked, "but it'll be awesome to see her poor black heart crushed when the district administrator tells her she's just an average cheerleader with no prominent skills."

"That's the spirit!" Sam patted her back, "That's something I definitely don't wanna miss."

When they made it to the auditorium, there was a line of students waiting to be let in, some who were participating, others there just to watch people either bomb or succeed. Of course, the cheer squad was there to support Paulina; they sneered and mocked other kids getting ready for tryouts. They stopped and laughed at the scruffy teen when they saw her walking forward.

"Well well well," Paulina smirked toward Henry's friends, "did you come to see me win or your friend fail?"

Henry tightened her grip on her backpack shoulder strap, remembering her promise to Danny not to fight anymore, though it was really hard to resist the urge to deck the snob, "There are plenty of positions open for the competition, we'll probably both get in."

"Oh yes, but I will crush you at the actual competition, it's just a matter of time."

Sam smiled and chuckled, "We'll just see who's kicking whose butt."

The tryouts were going to be somewhat private; there were students who could sit in the audience to watch the participants, but only one participant at a time could be in the auditorium to perform, this would keep it a surprise for everyone competing. The line moved very slowly, it seemed like hours before Henry could even see the doors to the auditorium.

She fidgeted with the front of her hoodie, as she became more and more nervous, "You guys promise you'll be there for me. I dunno if I can do it by myself without you guys."

Danny smiled, "Don't worry, we'll be right h—"

He didn't get to finish his sentence when blue smoke floated from his mouth; Henry flailed her hands above her head, "Are you freaking serious? _Now?_"

The raven-haired teen laugh sheepishly, "All right, I'm gonna go check out where that came from," he grabbed the thermos from his bag and turned to leave, but looked back, "I promise I'll be back in time to support you."

Henry folded her arms, "You'd better."

He laughed awkwardly and ran off to find the nearest bathroom or janitor closet to transform, whichever came first. _But seriously, now?_ Danny thought to himself. He found a bathroom and dodged inside, only to discover it was the girls' room. There were a few squeals from occupying girls and Danny ran out the door before he could be pelted with various cosmetics and purse items to drive him away. He finally found the boys' room and quickly changed to Danny Phantom and sped off in the direction he only assumed his sense led him to.

…

Soon the line had moved forward enough that there were just two people ahead of Henry to perform, it was only then Sam and Tucker decided to leave her side to find seats to watch her performance.

"We're just gonna go get some good seats for when your turn comes," Sam rested a hand on the nervous teen's shoulder.

"What about Danny?" she continued to fidget.

Tucker laughed, "He promised he'd be back in time, and we'll be saving him a seat."

Henry looked down at her feet, "I hope so," and then she thought to herself, _It isn't right for a future boyfriend to miss his future girlfriend's performance._

…

"Oh great, _this _guy," Danny growled to himself as he met with an old 'friend'.

It was that blasted zombie ghost again! Though this time it looked like he was growing skin back, and it had grown legs and was bandaged in several places; it seemed like it was healing from some disease or something, or maybe he really was a Pokémon, either way probably meant he was stronger. And if he was stronger, that meant I would take longer to defeat him, hopefully no too long. It was down the hall, slowly clawing and sniffing at a locker, growling almost in pleasure.

"Hey ghost," Danny floated above it, "are you some sort of pedophile sniffing children's possessions like that?" he wrinkled his nose, "Dude, you've got a problem."

It turned and when it saw Danny, it shrieked angrily. Somehow along with it's visual transformation, so did its' powerful cries and screams amplify. The teen ghost had to cover his ears to just keep from going deaf himself and pinched his eyes shut momentarily, just long enough for the ghost to speed behind him and grab the back of his head and smashed him against the other lockers and drag his face along them, the combination dials smacking Danny and then he tossed the teen across the hall.

Almost before the halfa could recover from the attack, the zombie ghost was upon him again, kicking him in the face and sending him flying, but grabbed his ankle, spun him in circles and threw him against the wall. Danny regained his senses long enough for him to phase through the wall out of the way of and ectoplasmic blast. He flew up high in the air, trying to catch his breath and analyze the situation.

"Man, this guy has gotten a lot stronger than last time," he growled, "but I have to wrap this up quickly. Remember: head, dead."

The ghost phased through the wall after him, searching around for him. It saw him floating in the air; with another shriek, it flew up after him with a ectoplasmic shot forming in its' hand. Danny formed his own blast and sped down after it, shouting as he dove in to meet the attack.

…

Before she knew it, it was Henry's turn. She timidly approached the stage, playing with her hands nervously. Mr. Lancer was one of the judges who decided who made it and who didn't, along with the principal, the gym coach and Ms. Peegrie the music instructor; he looked up and saw her make her way to a microphone in the center of the stage.

"Ah, Miss Cooper," he smiled, "I didn't realized you were competing."

She laughed and scratched the back of her head, "Yeah, I figured it was worth a shot."

He filed through the many papers students had turned in for the tryouts and found the paper with her name, "So I see here your talent is … " he raised an eyebrow, "Violin _or_ singing?"

Henry laughed nervously, "Yeah, I was gonna do one or the other, but I've been a bit disabled from the violin for a while," she held up her bandaged hand to prove her point, "so today I will be singing for you."

"All right," Mr. Lancer set the paper down in front of him on a table, "and what are you going to be singing for us today."

"I will be singing Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera," she stated with a smile at the thought of her favorite song.

"Beautiful song," Mrs. Peegrie piped up.

"Whenever you're ready Miss Cooper," Mr. Lancer sat forward expectantly.

The redhead swallowed and looked out at the audience; she immediately saw Sam and Tucker giving her thumbs up for encouragement. But Danny hadn't come back yet; the seat next to her other friends was still vacant. Guess he was going to miss her tryout, _But he better not miss my real performance,_ she thought to herself.

She sighed and took a deep breath.

…

Danny clamped the lid of the thermos down quickly as he laughed to himself in satisfaction. It took a lot of abuse, but he had finally subdued the zombie ghost with a lucky shot. He'd gotten himself beat up pretty good, but in the end he was still the victor.

"Another job well done," he spun the thermos on one finger, and then realized something, "Crap! I'm gonna miss Henry's performance!" and he sped off back to the bathroom to change back.

This time the boys' room was occupied by some sobbing teen that hadn't made it in the competition, so the ghost boy had to find somewhere else. He dodged into the stairwell and quickly changed back to his human self and ran as fast as he could toward the auditorium.

_Dang it! Too late_, he thought as he saw his three friends walking down the hall, Sam and Tucker cheering and praising Henry for her performance. The redhead smiled shyly back but still had downcast eyes.

Tucker looked up and saw Danny running toward them, "Dude! You missed one heck of a performance!" he slapped Henry on the back.

"Yeah! And she made into the competition!" Sam held up a green slip of paper, probably for verification of acceptance.

Henry just looked up at him with sad disappointed eyes, "You promised you would be back in time to see."

The raven-haired teen panted as he came to a stop, "I'm really really sorry, I tried to make it, but that ghost is just getting so strong, it's getting harder and harder to beat it."

"That zombie ghost again?" Tucker asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah," he held up the thermos, "I think I'll keep it in here for a little while until I figure out how to keep it in the ghost tone."

The redhead still stared at him in disappointment, Danny could feel her feelings of betrayal, "You promised you would make it, I was so scared, and I needed all the extra support."

He flinched at her disuse of contractions, signifying how upset she was, "I'm sorry, I tried to make it, I really did."

"I promised not to cause fights anymore and you did not hold up to your promise," she pouted.

Sam decided to step in, "But you made it in, and that's really what counts right?"

That didn't do much to sway her, "It is more than that, it is the principle of the matter," she studied her friend for a moment, seeing the look of hurt on his face, "Whatever," she walked passed him, "It just isn't right for a future boyfriend to miss his future girlfriend's performance," she said with a blush.

Danny stiffened and blushed at the thought that seemed to be coming up a lot lately.

"I need to get my violin from my locker," she threw over her shoulder.

Sam and Tucker silently poked fun at Danny and his reaction and he tried to swat them away in embarrassment as they walked, then they heard the scruffy teen's exclamation.

"Ok, _now _those cheerleader brats have gone _too far_!"

They ran to meet her and found that her locker had long claw marks across it, digging into the metal locker door. Frantically, Henry began turning the knob on her locker and punched it to open it. She gasped as she found three long claw marks across her violin case. Gently, she pulled it from her locker and set it on the floor and slowly opened it. She breathed a sigh of relief as she found her grandpa's violin still in one piece. Thankfully, the slash marks hadn't gone through far enough to damage the precious instrument.

The redhead picked it up gently and cradled it in her lap like a child, "Thank heavens nothing happened to you," she whispered to it.

…

End Chapter 8

…

Sorry for the late update, had other stuff on my mind. Review please, and pass the word to read my fic to you friends, lol.

**And for those of you that may have gotten lost during the timeline, we are at the 1st week of September, that's about a month and a half since we met Henry.


	9. Happy Birthday

Decided to start working on chapter 9, trying to move this along because the good stuff doesn't happen until later in the fic. This is probably going to be a long chapter, and the large sections in italics are flashbacks, and there is a graphic part coming up. Be forewarned, you _will_ shit bricks. Read and review! Tell your friends! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, this is a fan-based story not intended for profit (just reviews), please don't sue me.

…

Chapter 9: Happy Birthday

…

In the days that followed, everyone busied themselves with their normal activities. Danny, Sam and Tucker visited the arcade a few times; Henry said she wanted to stay home and practice for the talent show and work on her piles of homework. She seemed to be withdrawing from her friends and they weren't sure why, but hopefully it really was just that she was so busy now.

One morning, Danny walked down the sidewalk to meet Henry to walk her to school, but she wasn't there. _That's odd_, he thought to himself, _she's usually really excited to go to school_.

Uncle Rege's truck wasn't out front; he'd gone to work so he wasn't really a variable. _Is Henry sick? Or worse, was she hurt?_ The raven-haired teen briefly thought.

Danny decided to check it out for himself. He trudged up the long staircase to the old 'dirt shed'—when Henry had heard them call it the dirt shed, she had laughed and said, "More like the 'derp' shed." The teen boy knew he could just use his ghost powers to walk through the front door and go up to her room, but he decided against it and instead would use Henry's preferred entrance: climb the tree to the attic window.

He had never really done it before, but figured if she could do it, then he could. Even though the tree was old, it was stable enough to hold at least her weight, so why not his? Danny sighed and grabbed the lowest branch and began to haul himself up the tree, which actually turned out to be a bit harder than he thought, several branches he tried to step on were a bit too flimsy. Eventually he made it up and saw Henry through her window. She was sitting on her bed cross-legged, writing on notebook paper with a very serious look on her face. _What is she writing?_ Danny thought as he tapped on her window to get her attention.

The redhead jumped slightly, looked at the window and saw him. She waved in excitement and leaned over to open it for him, "I didn't know you could climb my tree, that was a pleasant surprise," she said with a big grin.

The teen boy scratched his head with a slightly embarrassed smile, "Yeah, I almost couldn't, this tree is a lot weaker than I thought."

She cocked her head to the side and laughed, "Well, you _do_ weigh a bit more than me, I'm kinda on the small side from malnourishment."

Danny flinched at the thought, but decided to change the subject, "What are you writing?"

"Oh," she looked down at the papers she had in her lap, "I'm just updating my will," she said casually.

The raven-haired teen's eyes widened, "Wait, your what?"

"Updating my will," she said with a serious face, "I update it every year or so or when something special happens. Mostly because my family is prone to dying in early years."

He was still shocked; why would she be doing that? Of all things, why now? Again, he decided to change the subject, knowing how easily she could be distracted, "So, uh, are you ready to go to yet school?"

Her eye's shot open in surprise, "Is it really time for school already? Oh no! I'm gonna be late!" she quickly gathered up her papers and put them in a drawer on the side of her bed and grabbed her neatly packed backpack.

Like a monkey, she jumped out the window and swung quickly down each branch, leaving Danny clinging to the flimsy branch he was perched on. The tree shook slightly from her dramatic swings and settled when she stepped to the ground.

"Hurry up slow poke!" Henry called up to her friend.

Danny laughed and dropped down each branch awkwardly, eventually landing on his butt on the ground with a grunt.

The scruffy teen grabbed his sleeve and dragged him down the steps and to the sidewalk, "Onward!" she shouted in her usual manner.

…

Banners were strung up and down the halls reading 'Happy Birthday Paulina!' Apparently it was her seventeenth birthday and everyone wanted to celebrate it. Or rather she and all the other cheerleaders were _making_ everyone celebrate it. Danny and Tucker were indifferent on the matter, but both Henry and Sam were borderline irate.

"Why should we celebrate _her_ birthday of all people?" Sam rolled her eyes.

"What has that twat done to deserve a birthday celebrated by the whole school?" Henry threw her hands up, "Other than being one of the richest people in school, what has she accomplished? Wealth shouldn't determine one's popularity status."

Sam held up her hand for a high-five, "Exactly! You get it."

The scruffy teen returned her high-five, but continued to rant, "I mean, why even celebrate birthdays? It's just the same as any other day, same as Valentines' Day, St. Patrick's Day, Labor Day, Christmas, etc etc etc!"

"I get the Christmas part," Danny rolled his eyes, "but it's fun to celebrate some other holidays."

"But do we seriously need a specific date to show love and happiness and joy and fun? Why can't it just take place any time of the year? Holidays are so commercialized we forget what truly matters."

"But they are still fun to celebrate," Tucker shrugged.

"Granted, I like Halloween because it's fun to dress up but others are a bit meaningless," she growled and shoved her hands in her hoodie pocket, "birthdays are useless. We've been dying since the day we were born, and we don't need a day to celebrate that."

Danny raised an eyebrow, "Does this have to do with your will you were writing this morning?"

"No," Henry snapped.

"Wait, you were writing your will?" Tucker pointed at her.

She was getting more and more frustrated, "Is there seriously something wrong with being prepared for when you die?"

The trio was pretty shocked at what she was saying, her mood had started to become very dark lately and they were still trying to figure out why.

Danny decided to make a suggestion, "Is today _your_ birthday?"

That really set her off; she spun around to face her friends, red in the face with anger, "_No!_ It is _not_ my birthday and I am _not_ going to tell you when it is because I _do not_ want to celebrate my birthday! So please _drop it!_"

And right about then fell the awkward silence as they parted for their classes.

…

Henry sat through Computer Technology in silence, doing her work and not saying anything more. She was getting used to using a computer despite never having used one, she tended to pick up on things fairly quickly.

Next was gym, and the coach decided playing the classic game of dodge ball would be a 'fun' idea. The trio of friends growled in frustration at hearing that, but Henry seemed to get really excited about it.

"Come on guys," she grinned, showing the gap in her teeth, "think of it as dodging traffic."

"That's still not very reassuring," Tucker groaned.

"Well, hitting a few key people in the face sounds like a good stress reliever," Sam looked up.

"_Exactly!_" the redhead shouted as she skipped into the large indoor gymnasium.

Teams were picked at random by the coach herself, Sam and Henry ended up on one team with several other kids that was dubbed Team A, while Danny and Tucker ended up on Team B, somehow along with Dash, oh joy. Balls were lined up in a row in the center of the room, both teams on opposite sides of the room, ready to rush forward, grab a ball and beat the hell out of each other.

The rules? Simple: get a ball, throw it at someone on the opposite team, if it hits him or her, then they're out. If they catch it, then the person who threw it is out. If you have a ball in your hands, you can use it to deflect an incoming ball. There was a white line painted around the perimeter of the floor, if anyone steps over that line, they're out.

"The winning team is the last person left standing," the coach announced, "ready, set," she blew her whistle.

All hell broke loose, shouting and yelling, balls flying every which way. It was so hard to even concentrate on a single incoming ball, as there were so many in play. Mikey was the first one out, he was unable to dodge or defend himself properly. One by one, players on each team were hit and ejected from the game.

Danny and Tucker had gotten out a while ago, they sat on the sideline, watching and cheering for Henry and Sam, despite being on the opposite team. There were only a handful of players left on each side, Dash of course being one of them. He decided now was a good time for payback, just had to wait for an opening. Henry ran passed along a wall attempting to catch a ball that was heading out of bounds, her guard was dropped as her attention was focused on grabbing said ball.

With a loud growl, Dash wound the ball back and threw it as hard as his well-tuned quarterback skills would allow. Everything seemed to slow down and echo, similar to the feeling in their initial fight. The ball smacked the smaller teen square in the side of her face. The force was enough to knock her off her feet and slam the other side of her face hard against the wall, hard enough to echo throughout the entire gymnasium. She squealed sharply and collapsed in a heap on the floor.

"_HENRY!_" her three friends shouted and rushed forward.

The coach blew her whistle, "Time out!"

Everything was spinning as Henry lay on the floor, then it went dark.

…

"_Higher Grandpa! Higher!" the little redhead shouted in her tire swing._

_An old man laughed as he pushed his little grandchild in her precious swing. He didn't appear to be very old, he was fairly well in shape and energetic despite being fifty-two. Grandpa knew exactly how to make the swing spin and turn to make it more fun than it already was. The young child giggled and squealed in excitement with each push and spin._

_It was mid-fall, leaves had started falling from the big, beautiful weeping willow tree, creating a scene like gold and yellow and orange snow in the setting sun. A breeze blew lightly to cool the air of the day, though it was already fairly cool. The sun was fading and the clouds above were clear and white and blue, there was no pollution in the air where they lived; it was a very nice, quiet, quaint household._

_An elderly woman stood on the porch, smiling and wiping her hands with a dishtowel, she reached a small metal rod up to a metal triangle and rang it to get the pair's attention, "Dinner is ready, come inside Johnny, Henrietta!"_

_The child skid her feet along the ground to a stop, "Ok Grandma!" and she ran with a slight stumble toward the house and up the porch steps._

"_Go wash you're hands please," Grandma gently swatted her bottom with the rod, not enough to hurt her, but just to get the point across._

"_Ouch!" she piped, even though it didn't hurt, "Yes Grandma."_

"_You too, honey," she shook the rod at the older man._

_He held up his hands defensively, "I know, I know, I'm heading there."_

_Henrietta was standing on her tippy toes to reach the high kitchen sink. Even though she was eight, she was still on the small side—just under four feet—but hopefully she'd have a growth spurt and gain a normal height. She lathered up the old soap bar to create a thick layer of bubbles to make sure she was extra clean. _

_Grandpa came up behind her and reached around either side of her to snag the bar of soap from her hands, "Leave some for me, babe."_

"_But I've been playing in the dirt all day. See?" she held up her hands to reveal all the dirt under her nails._

"_Wow, those are dirty, better scrub harder," he said as he tickled her lightly._

_The child giggled and tried to get away, but was wrapped up in a soapy hug. The old man held her hands and helped her gently pry the grime from under her nails; Grandma always thoroughly checked over dirty hands before they could sit down to dinner._

_Tonight was meatloaf night, one of Henry's favorite foods, especially the way Grandma made it. She rolled shredded carrots, diced onions, minced garlic, and small sliced mushrooms into the ground beef, cooked in a casserole dish with steak sauce and the meat drippings for flavor; she sure knew how to make a meatloaf. It was easy to overeat such a delicious meal, and they stuffed themselves until they thought their seams would burst. Normally Grandma wouldn't allow them to eat so much, but it was a special time; tomorrow was Henry's ninth birthday._

_That night, Henry said her usual prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."_

_She repeated this every night, as Grandma would always tell her 'Even angels deserve to die', then would turn around and call her a little angel; not necessarily something you tell a child. Grandpa tucked her into bed and read her the 'Velveteen Rabbit', one of her favorite stories. Even though she was growing up, she still loved to hear Grandpa read to her, it was very comforting. When the book was finished, he set it down on the nightstand by her bed and kissed her forehead._

"_Remember," he said softly with a smile, "tomorrow is your birthday, and we're throwing a big party for you, and the whole family will be coming, so don't sleep in too long."_

_She squirmed in excitement and settled down into her covers, "I promise I'll be awake bright and early Grandpa."_

_He smiled again, wound up an old music box and opened it to play 'Music of the 'Night' to lull her to sleep, "Good night baby, see you in the morning."_

"_Good night Grandpa," she said with a yawn, "I love you."_

"_I love you too baby," he said as he got up off her bed and left her to drift into dreamland._

…

_The sun peeked in through the tiny window, penetrating through eyelids to wake the still sleeping birthday girl. She stirred then slowly opened her eyes, growling at the sun in irritation. Then she remembered what today was! Henry threw the covers off and stumbled out of her room and tripped down the stairs to the kitchen, still in her nightgown; she never was very good at navigating stairs._

_Breakfast was cooking on the stove—bacon and eggs—and party decorations were partially set up. But where were Grandma and Grandpa? It was strange, but they have occasionally played hide-and-seek in the mornings if she overslept, just to scare her into thinking they'd left her, as morbid as it sounded. So, it was time to go find her Grandparents, but where to look first …_

_The little redhead heard a slight thumping in the hallway closet; someone must be hiding in there. With a small giggle, she tiptoed to the door to surprise whoever might have been hiding in there._

_She put her little hand on the doorknob, waited, then turned it quickly and threw open the door, "I found y—" then she stopped with a horrified look on her face._

_A stool rolled slowly out from closet floor, from the coat rod, the old man hung from a rope around his neck, his neck obviously broken, still swinging slightly as if it had happened only a few minutes ago. At first, Henry wasn't sure if what she was seeing was true, then she reached forward to touch the denim jeans he wore and shook him slightly. No, it was real!_

"_G-grandpa?" she squeaked, then grabbed both his legs and shook them, as if to try to wake him up, "Grandpa! GRANDPA!"_

_The rope shook free and the old man's body slumped forward on top of her, trapping her beneath the weight. She shrieked and fought to lift the body off her. After she worked her way free, she crawled backward staring at her Grandpa's lifeless body, his dead eyes fixed on her. Tears of fear and shock streamed down her face as she beheld the scene before her. Grandpa was … dead?_

"_Grandma!" the Henry called as she somehow managed to pull her feet beneath her to stand, then ran to find her Grandma._

_She searched the entire downstairs, called for the old lady, but didn't find her, so she had to be upstairs. Henry stumbled up the stairs to look for Grandma, searching each room. When she reached the bathroom, her heart nearly stopped._

_Grandma lay slumped on the floor, a straight razor in one hand. The front of her dress and the floor was soaked in blood, something written sloppily on the wall in her blood, 'Out of the depths, I cry to you, Oh Lord', her eyes open and cold. The little redhead couldn't believe what she was seeing, was this real or a dream?_

"_Grandma!" she shouted, grabbing the old woman by the shoulders, shaking her roughly, "Grandma! Wake up, Grandma! WAKE UP!" There was n response._

_Upon finally realizing what had happened, Henry stood up and backed away, her hands, feet, and front covered in blood from her feeble attempt to wake the dead body. She backed against the hallway wall opposite the bathroom, and ran down the stairs, screaming in fear. She ran for the front door, but tripped one more time over her Grandpa's body, crawling to her feet and continued running toward said door, leaving bloody footprints in her wake._

…

_No one showed up for a few more hours; they still thought there was a birthday party, and didn't expect to find what they did. Aunt Barbara was the first to arrive, what she saw was absolutely horrifying. Poor Henry sat on her tire swing, clinging tightly to the rope, covered in blood, with tear soaked, blank eyes. Barbara couldn't get her to speak when she asked what happened, but she went inside and found for herself what happened. She instantly called the police, then the other relatives that were on their way to inform them of what had happened._

_The police were baffled to say the least. It was obviously a double suicide case, however the fact that they were in the middle of preparations for the day, let alone a birthday party seemed too suspicious. No one could think of a reason as to why they would have killed themselves, though Aunt Shelly said it was probably that they were momentarily possessed, or at least believed they were possessed by evil spirits, hence Grandma's writing on the wall._

_It was several weeks before they could even get Henrietta to speak._

…

Everything finally started to become light and blurry as she regained consciousness. There were several faces staring down at her, she couldn't tell who they were, though three faces seemed to stand out more than the others.

"Henry?" a male voice echoed, "Are you ok?"

She recognized it, but it took her a moment to piece the voice with a name and face. Danny was his name, that's what she remembered. The other two recognizable faces? Their names were … Sam and Tucker, right? Another voice and face appeared, a gruff yet feminine voice.

"Kid? Wake up," she said, though it sounded more demanding, "Are you injured? Does it hurt anywhere?"

She was finally snapped back to her senses; she was in gym class with her friends, these were her classmates, this was her teacher, and she'd just been ... hit in the face with a ball? The scruffy teen sat up slowly with a painful grunt, rubbing a lump forming on her head. What had that been? Was it really…?

"Kid, are you hurt?" the gym teacher repeated, almost impatiently.

Henry checked herself over, feeling her mouth to make sure the rest of her teeth were still intact, "No, I'm ok."

The teacher sighed and stood up, "All right class, nothing to see here, move along," she shooed them out of the way.

Upon realizing what exactly she had dreamed, tears formed in wide blue eyes and she buried her face in her hands and began to sob.

Danny placed a hand on her shoulder, "Henry, are—"

She viciously pushed him away; he landed with a loud thud on his rear. Henry jumped up and pushed passed the crowd of students, knocking several over out of her way, and ran to the girl's locker room. The coach called after her to come back to class, but she ignored her and kept running, not looking back. She really didn't want to be there right now, and she didn't care if she got in trouble for it.

…

Henry didn't come to lunch after class, nor to her Biology class, which unfortunately attendance was counted as part of their grade; there goes her 100% class score. After school, they walked home with a sense of gloom. It was Friday, so their weekend was starting, but that thought didn't seem to lighten the mood.

"So what do you think happened to Henry?" Sam asked, an obvious tone of concern in her voice.

"Maybe she just went home for the day," Tucker suggested, "you saw how upset she was."

"I know," Danny said as he thought about when she pushed him, "I've never seen her do anything like that, something is definitely wrong."

"Well, maybe we should just pop over to her house really quick and see if she's ok," Sam shrugged.

"Yeah, good idea," Tucker agreed.

They walked a bit further in relative silence, before something caught Sam's eye.

"There she is!" she pointed.

It was the park they had all hung out in the first time. Henry sat on top of the tire swing in the tree, her head bowed and her hands loosely gripping the rope, her backpack propped up against the base of the roots. The swing swayed slowly as she hummed a song to herself; she didn't even notice her friends running down the sidewalk and across the grass.

"Henry!" they all called in unison to get her attention.

Her head snapped up and she turned to face them, her face still slightly red and puffy from crying, "Oh hi guys!" she said with a big grin.

They skid to a stop in front of her, panting lightly, "Where have you been?" Danny asked winded.

"Oh," she laughed sheepishly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you guys, I just wanted to swing in the tire swing before they tore down the park to make room for condos," she tilted her head in the direction of a sign that read that demolition would start tomorrow, seeing as how it had been almost completely destroyed during their first encounter with the zombie ghost.

Sam looked down at her, "Why did you leave school? We were really worried about you."

A brief serious look touched her face, but was quickly covered by another wide grin, "I didn't feel like being at school anymore, so I decided to go home."

"You can't really do that," Tucker raised an eyebrow.

"Why not? If I'm not feeling well then I should be home."

Danny folded his arms, "Well, if that's the case, then why are you out here instead of home like you said you should be?"

"Tire swings are like a relic nowadays, I had to say good bye to it," the scruffy teen spoke quietly, soothingly stroking the rope.

There was another awkward silence, the only sound being the wind in the branches. With a heavy sigh, Henry jumped down to the ground and patted the tire swing gently.

She picked up her backpack and swung it over her shoulder, grinning to show her missing tooth, "Ok, let's go home."

Danny smiled and laughed, "Ok, let's go."

"By the way," Tucker piped in, "you missed a pretty interesting Biology lecture."

"Aw man! Really?" she pouted, "Can we go over it this weekend?"

"Why don't we do something 'fun' for the weekend?" Sam suggested.

Henry groaned, "Fine, so what do you wanna do?"

Danny raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure you're ok?" her behavior was little off.

"Oh, I always feel better after a good cry. Now that I got _that_ out of my system, I feel great!" the scruffy teen skipped toward the sidewalk.

She chattered happily all the way home as if nothing had happened, her three friends were slightly concerned, but decided to let it go since she seemed fine. They walked her up the narrow steps of her yard to her porch, she opened the door, stepped inside and turned to them.

"So, will you guys call my house phone tomorrow and let me know what we decide to do? You have it right?" she smiled.

"Sure thing," Tucker gave her thumbs up.

"Ok, I'll talk to you guys then," and shut the door.

…

Danny lay in bed that night, wide-awake despite being tired. He just couldn't get the thought out of his mind, _Why was Henry so upset today?_ He'd never seen her like that before, and ranting about birthdays, what was so bad about birthdays? She seemed so sorely offended when had he just asked if it was her birthday. He thought for a long time, then remembered one of the first things she'd ever told them: her Grandparents committed suicide on her birthday. Obviously she wouldn't want to celebrate such awful event.

Well, he wanted to do something to make her feel better, but what? The raven-haired teen thought for a while longer about what to do, then the light bulb above his head switched on. He jumped out of bed and threw on some shoes; he had to be quick about it and hoped it wasn't already too late. Still in his pajamas, he turned invisible and flew off into the night.

…

Henry had fallen into a light, fitful sleep. Just one more hour or so and the day would be over, and she could get back to her relatively normal life. Hopefully whatever she and her friends decided to do this weekend would help make her memories go away. She was telling the truth earlier, after a good cry she always felt better. Granted, she did feel a lot better, but she still wanted to forget about the whole day.

A light tapping on her window woke her from her light sleep; she rolled over to see a figure in the tree outside her window. After rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she realized it was Danny, who was waving happily. Somehow he'd either managed to climb the tree properly or he flew up there, either way, what was he doing outside her window after eleven at night? And in his pajamas?

Henry yawned and opened her window, everything still blurry from just waking up, "Danny? What are you doing out here?"

"Shh!" he shushed her quietly, "I've got a surprise for you, come downstairs."

She nodded with another yawn, closed her window, and absent-mindedly went downstairs. At first she thought she was just dreaming or sleep walking, but when she opened her front door and the cool night air blew against her face and bare shoulders, she was wide awake. The scruffy teen blinked several times in the dim light of the stars and moon.

Henry looked up and saw Danny standing in front of her, still smiling, "What are you doing here?" she repeated, rubbing her eyes again, mostly to make sure she was actually awake.

"I have a surprise for you," he repeated in return, "close your eyes."

She raised a sleepy eyebrow, "Are you serious?" the smile on his face made it clear he was being genuine, so she sighed and closed her eyes.

Danny waved a hand in front of her face to make sure she wasn't looking, then gently grabbed her hands and led her slowly down the porch and around the to the back of the house. Henry scooted her feet along the cool dirt and grass slowly, trying not to trip over an exposed rock or anything that may have been hazardous for bare feet. The teen boy let go of her hands and stepped behind her to guide her; he could hardly contain his own excitement.

"Danny? Where are we going?" she said nervously.

"Don't open your eyes yet," he warned as he continued to guide her.

She growled as they kept walking; she just wanted to go to bed and forget about the day, what was Danny up to? The air was pretty chilly for a thin tank top and pajama pants, considering she was already always cold. Then Danny stopped her in the backyard, "Ok, are you ready?"

Henry wasn't sure if she really was, but answered, "I'm ready."

"All right," he let her go and took a couple steps back, "open your eyes."

She did as she was told; her eyes fluttered open and struggled to focus, then she gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.

"Surprise!" he threw his arms above his head, "Happy Birthday!"

It shown so beautifully in the moonlight, hanging from her tree in the backyard was the precious tire swing from the park. The redhead squealed in excitement and bounced back and forth between her two feet. She rushed forward and leapt up onto the swing, the momentum causing it to swing wildly. Danny had taken great care to tie it to the thickest and strongest branch on the flimsy tree, though that was all relative. The tree swayed beneath the weight of the small teen girl, but held sturdy.

Danny looked on in satisfaction, he had hoped she would be excited about it and that it would lift her spirit. He didn't like seeing her upset, so he was glad that he could make her happy. Henry giggled and laughed as she continued to swing; she knew she should be quieter, but she was just too happy to care at the moment.

"Oh Danny!" she looked back at him as she spun the tire in circles, "This is the best birthday present I've ever gotten! Thank you so much!"

He laughed and blushed, guess he was right about it being her birthday, "You're welcome, so how old are you now?"

"Seventeen," she seemed to forget that she didn't want to tell her friends it was her birthday.

Something rubbed up against his leg, causing him to jump. Danny looked down and saw Cheshire rubbing up against his legs; the cat looked up at him and meowed affectionately.

Henry laughed as she looked at them upside down, "Looks like Cheshire says 'thank you' too."

The raven-haired teen reached down to stroke the soft fur, Cheshire reached a paw up and grabbed his hand and gingerly licked his fingertips, purring loudly. He chuckled and looked back up at Henry, who had just started humming to herself again, still blissfully swinging. Danny liked seeing her so happy and carefree, then a thought crossed his mind that he knew would make her even happier and he blushed. He stood back up, strode toward her and caught either side of the tire and spun it so she was facing him.

Henry stopped humming when she saw the seriousness in his face. They both just stared at each other for what seemed like a long time. Finally, Danny decided to make the first move, he leaned forward slowly and planted a gentle kiss on her lips. At first Henry wasn't sure if this was really happening, when she realized it was really happening and not a dream, she froze.

Danny pulled away and looked her in the eyes, the pale light of the night sky barely showing his bright blush, "Henrietta Cooper, will you be my girlfriend?"

She gasped and blushed, still afraid this was a dream, and she didn't want to let it go. Henry leaned forward off the swing, forcing Danny to catch her, and wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a delighted kiss in return. It was a sweet, romantic moment, in a sweet, romantic setting.

The scruffy teen pulled away to look up into his eyes, "But I thought _I_ was supposed to be the one to ask _you_ out."

Danny laughed lightly, "Looks like I beat you to it," he rubbed his forehead against hers, "So?"

Henry closed her eyes and smiled, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, "Of course I'll be your girlfriend," she brought her hands down to hug his middle and buried her face against his shirt to hide her tears of joy, "This really is the happiest birthday I've ever had."

…

End Chapter 9

…

FINALLY! Took you freaking long enough Danny! Didn't think he'd ever ask her out at this rate! Well, it _has_ been just a bit over a month and a half since they first met, it would seem a bit too cliché for them to get together without first getting to know each other. –**s**hrugs- And from now on, assume that every time Henry grins, the gap of her missing tooth is showing, I think it makes for a cuter picture, lol. Read and Review! Tell your friends!

**In case anyone is still lost in the timeline, it is now the second week of September.


	10. Activities and Hobbies

Just realized I'm starting to make a Mary Sue character, damnit! Dx I'll try to work a few things around to remedy the Mary Sue complex, lol. So, Danny and Henry are officially dating, so what does that mean? Find out! These next chapters are probably going to be long to mash everything in and move the story along. Read and review! Tell your friends!

Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright to Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon do, this is a fan-made fiction for fun, please don't sue me.

…

Chapter 10: Activities and Hobbies

…

Danny woke the next morning with butterflies in his stomach. Why? He was meeting up with his good friend today, but this time, he was meeting up with her as his girlfriend. Sam and Tucker would likely find out today while they were hanging out, but it didn't really matter. Almost coincidently, his cell phone started ringing at the second he was thinking about his friends, he held it up and caller ID said it was Tucker calling, likely to discuss what they'd be doing that day.

"Hey dude, you awake?"

"Yeah, I'm up," the halfa stretched and glanced at the clock, it read 11:32, he'd slept in quite a bit, then again he did stay out late, "So, have we figured out what we want to do?"

"Well," Tucker spoke, "I kinda wanna go back to the arcade, they just got a new game console that I'd like to take a look at."

Danny frowned to himself, "You know Henry doesn't like the arcade."

"No seriously dude," he actually sounded excited, "I just talked to her on the phone a couple minutes ago, she said she'd be happy to come along."

"Uh, really?" That doesn't sound like Henry.

"Yeah, I don't really know why, but frankly I don't really care. I talked to Sam about it, she said it was fine with her too, so as far as I can tell, we're going to the arcade today!"

Danny thought for a bit, "Ok, what time are we meeting up?"

"Well, we _were_ gonna meet up around noon, but you sound like you just woke up."

"No I didn't!" he lied.

"Ok, then noon it is!"

"All right, I'll see you guys soon then," the raven-haired teen rolled out of bed.

"Ok dude, see you then!" there was a click on the other end as the techno-geek hung up.

Danny sat for a moment, then reached into his desk for a scrap of notebook paper with a phone number on it; he hadn't quite memorized it yet. He dialed the number and waited.

"Hello?"

"Hey Henry, it's Danny."

"Oh hi!" came an excited squeal, "How are you?"

He laughed, "I'm doing good, but I was curious about what's going on today."

"What do you mean? Aren't we going to the arcade?"

"I think so, Tucker said you wanted to come and I just thought it was odd," he started undressing to take a shower.

"I know," she suddenly sounded shy, "I just figured that if we are going to be dating then we should participate in each other's activities and hobbies," there was a pause on the other line, "is that what boyfriends and girlfriends do?" she whispered.

Danny laughed again, "Well yeah, but you said you didn't like video games because they 'skewed the perception of reality', or something to that extent."

There was a slight scoff, "Worse comes to worse, I'll bring a book, no worries."

"Ok, as long as you're ok with it."

"Yeah, I'm fine with it. So are we gonna meet up at my house then walk to the arcade?"

"I guess so, I was gonna jump in the shower really quick, then I'll head over to get you."

"All right, I'll be waiting on my porch when you're ready."

"Ok, see you then," he said with a smile.

"Ok, bye babe!" the phone clicked.

Danny's eyes widened and he blushed; _Did she just call me babe?_

…

The teen ghost walked down the street same as he did everyday, but this time with a slight spring in his step. When he reached Henry's house, she was sitting on the edge on the porch reading a thick book with headphones in her ears, so she didn't see or hear him coming. He looked around on the ground and found a small pebble at his feet; he picked it up and carefully flicked in her direction. It hit the porch mere inches from her thigh, but made just enough of a sound to get her attention. She looked up and saw him standing on the sidewalk; she waved happily to him, jumped up and started running down the stairs.

She tripped and rolled all the way to the bottom of the steep stairs and hit the gate with a loud thud, "Ow, that tickled a little," as she reached up to unlock the gate and flop on the sidewalk and looked up and Danny, "Hi there!"

He laughed and helped her up, "Are you ok?"

She raised an eyebrow, "I fall down those stairs almost everyday, I'm used to it by now," she said with a hug.

Danny blushed and returned the hug, "So, what do you have there?"

The scruffy teen looked down at her book, " 'Atlas Shrugged' and," she pulled out an old cassette player, "a Walkman, in case I get bored or it's too loud in there."

He raised an eyebrow, "We don't really have to go if you don't want to."

"Oh, I want to go," she stuffed the articles in her hoodie pocket, "this is just in case."

"All right," he laughed and held out a hand, "let's go."

Henry looked down at his hand in confusion, "What are you doing?"

Danny was confused as to what she was referring to, "Boyfriends and girlfriends usually hold hands."

"Why?"

He blinked a couple times; "Because, it's nice to hold hands, you don't want to hold hands?" he looked hurt.

"No, I do," she quickly grabbed his hand, "it's just this whole thing is new to me. Remember, up until a few months ago, I'd never even had friends, let alone a boyfriend."

Danny laughed lightly, "Well, what do you think boyfriends and girlfriends do then?" he started leading her down the sidewalk in the direction of the arcade.

The redhead furrowed her eyebrows in thought, "Well, I know sex is involved, but it's too early for that."

Danny coughed awkwardly and almost tripped, blushed brightly at the mention of … _that_, "Uh, yeah, sometimes, but not always."

"Ok, that's fine, what else do they do?"

"Well," it was his turn to think on the subject, "they hang out and spend a lot of time together, do special things for each other, usually romantic, they cuddle a lot, share a lot of affection, and generally take care of each other. Or at least that's what I think it means."

She grinned widely, "Yeah, I can do that babe."

The teen ghost looked back at her, "Why do you call me babe?"

Henry was a bit confused, "Grandma and Grandpa used to call me 'babe' and 'baby' and 'honey', or sometimes even 'pumpkin-head', so I always thought it was a term of endearment. But I'll stop calling you that if you don't like it."

Danny smiled and squeezed her hand, "Nope, its fine baby."

She blushed and smiled, then leaned her head against his shoulder.

…

Sam and Tucker had been waiting outside the arcade for quite some time now when they finally saw the pair walking down the sidewalk.

"Where have you two been?" Tucker flailed, "We could've been playing games almost half an hour ago."

Danny scratched the back of his head, "Hehe, sorry, I felt like taking a shower before I came out."

Sam looked down and noticed they were still holding hands, she smirked and folded her arms, "So, you guys finally decided to hook, eh?"

"Yup," Henry beamed, "as of about 11:20 last night."

Tucker raised an eyebrow, "Ok," there was an awkward pause, "anyway, let's go inside."

The quartet entered the wide doors, it was jam packed inside. It was always packed on Saturdays, but today it was because of the debut of the new console. Henry's eyes widened and she released Danny's hand to cover her ears. He suddenly felt bad again for making her come out here.

He leaned in toward her, "Are you sure you'll ok?"

She looked at him with a forced smile, "I hope so."

There was a long line that stretched through most of the arcade, probably for the precious new console Tucker was talking about. Henry furrowed her eyebrows again and walked around the line to see what was so exciting. There were two bouncers on either side of a large raised platform, a cushy looking chair in the center. Some kid was sitting in the chair playing some shooter game, the seat rotated and vibrated along with the game. When the gamer finally lost, the two bouncers grabbed his arms and escorted him away.

"Wait! I need to get the high score! I didn't even get through level three!" he begged to no avail as the next person in line jumped into the seat.

She shoved her hands in her pockets to fish out her headphones, "See? It rots the brain."

Danny sighed, "Well, what about one of the easier ones? Wanna try one of those?"

"Like which ones?" she had her headphones and was about to push play.

He thought for a bit, "Well, there's ski ball, pinball, foosball, air hockey, Pac-man, Donkey Kong, DDR, a few others like that."

"Ok, what do I do and where do I go?" she slowly took off her headphones and let them hang around her neck.

The raven-haired teen reached into his pocket, pulled out a few quarters and placed them in her small hand, "You take these and look for a game you wanna play, then put the quarters in and go."

"I'll take her around and show her if you and Tucker wanna wait in line," Sam suggested.

"Ok," Henry looked down at the coins, "I'll give it a try, but I still wonder what the big deal is about video games."

"Come on, I'll show you," Sam took her hand and led her away, leaving Danny and Tucker to wait in the long line.

Henry looked around with mild disinterest, mainly due to the noise and flashing lights. They walked passed the Pac-man table and she couldn't help but stop and stare at the picture on the side, "Why is that cheese wheel chasing that ghost?"

The Goth laughed, "That's Pac-man, you run around a little maze eating the little dots and trying not to get caught by those ghosts," she began explaining the rules, "but there are bigger dots you eat so the ghosts turn blue and you can eat them for extra points, and there's fruit you can eat for extra points too."

The part with the ghost was what caught Henry's attention, "Can we try this one?"

"Sure, it's only one quarter to play, and it's fairly easy to play so it's a good one to start on."

"Ok, so where do you put the quarters?" she looked around the giant brick-like table, "oh nevermind," as she found the slot and inserted her first quarter.

…

"Go, go, go!" Sam cheered.

"No, no, no!" Henry shouted as she desperately struggled not to lose any more lives.

She had already lost two lives, she had one life left and didn't want to die again, "No, no, stop! Do not want! _DO NOT WANT_!"

Several kids had stopped to watch her spaz out over the console; it was pretty difficult to ignore her shouting and screaming random phrases. Even Danny and Tucker could hear her on the other side of the room while waiting in the slow-moving line.

"Dude, your girlfriend has some serious gamer rage," Tucker leaned in to whisper to Danny as another string of angry words reached their ears.

Danny shrugged, "Maybe she's a closet gamer."

"Un hand me you fiend! Be gone Satan! Wait, no! Not there!"

A happy tune played from the machine, "You won Henry!" Sam shouted.

"I did?" she looked down at the screen, "That's an intense game."

Sam scoffed, "If you think that's intense, you should see the games we usually play."

Henry jumped when a string of paper started printing out from the machine, "What are those?"

"Those are tickets, on certain games if you win a level then the machines will give you tickets to spend at the prize counter."

"Prize counter?" as she tore off her string of tickets.

"Over here," Sam led her to a counter with toys and trinkets behind it, manned by a very bored looking teen.

Curiously, Henry walked to the counter to look at the prizes with awe, first up at the wall at all the bigger prizes, then down to the glass cabinet at the smaller prizes. She scratched her chin as she tried to decide on what she wanted.

Her eyes went wide, and she pointed at an item in the case, "Can I have that one?"

The employee looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Do you have enough tickets for it?"

"Um, I dunno," she handed them to him.

He quickly counted them, and tore off the proper amount and handed her back five tickets. Then he opened the case, took out Henry's desired prize and handed it to her. It was a simple sky blue headband; Henry picked it up in excitement and put it on her head, quite satisfied with herself.

"I like it," she smiled, "it makes me look more like a girl."

"Not bad for twenty-five cents," Sam said.

Henry handed her the rest of her tickets, "I don't need the rest of these, I got what I wanted. I'm gonna go show Danny!" and she skipped away.

She was halfway across the room when a pair of large hands pushed her roughly against the wall. Henry was startled and confused at first, but looked up and saw Dash and Kwan smirking down at her.

"Hey freak," Dash sneered down at her, "I still owe you for getting me kicked off the football team, and no Mr. Lancer here to save you."

Henry was terrified; she looked down and away from him, not looking him in the face.

"What's the matter?" the jock smacked her upside her head, "Not so tough with no one to come to your rescue, huh?"

The scruffy teen fidgeted with her hands, almost as if to distract herself from what he was saying. He was right; not only was there no teacher to break up the fight, but now there were _two _of them, both three times her size. Even in a public place, would he even hold back just a little bit?

He noticed the corner of a book poking out from her hoodie and snatched it up quickly, "Well well, what do we have here?"

Henry gasped and jumped to grab the book back, but Dash held it up high, "Give that back! It's not mine, it's Mr. Lancer's!"

The bully smirked again, "Is that so? Well, I guess I owe him too."

"Stop it!" she jumped up over and over again to try to grab it, but he held it up over his head, laughing at her feeble attempts. She finally just got so angry and frustrated, "Give it back _now_!" she shouted as she kicked him in the shin.

Dash yelped slightly, then grabbed her by the collar and lifted her up against the wall, "You're gonna regret that, loser!"

Her shouting was enough to get most peoples' attention, including Danny's, "_HENRY!_" he left the long line to come to her rescue.

Tucker shouted to him, "Dude! It's almost our turn and I can't hold your spot in l—" then he noticed Henry was in trouble and was momentarily torn between helping his friend and having waited in line so long to be able to play the game, but in the end decided to leave the line to help the little redhead.

Danny ran to his girlfriend's aid, "_LET HER GO—_" and with that, of course at the greatest time to happen, his ghost sense went off, blue mist wafting from his mouth.

The wall to the side of Henry crashed open, tearing like paper, as her least favorite ghost found her and glared down in satisfaction. Dash looked up in shock at the huge creature, dropped his victim and her book and ran away screaming in fear, so much for his tough, macho exterior. The ghost turned its' attention to Henry, smirking and growling in contentment, and reached a still rotting hand toward her.

She squeaked and started running away as everyone else panicked and scattered. The angry zombie ghost shrieked angrily and tried to chase after her, knocking over several video game tables and booths in its' way. Henry felt Danny's hand grasp hers and attempt to keep her from getting lost or left behind in the stampede of people as if an unstoppable river.

Henry gasped, "My book!"

"Wait! Henry, don't let go!" Danny's feeble attempt to hold her hand and keep her from letting go failed as the crowd began pushing them apart, "_HENRY!_"

Bravely as well as foolishly, she charged back through the crowd, and effectively toward the ghost. It saw her and reached its' hand toward her again. She managed to dodge it this time, skidding across the floor and between its' feet. It snarled in irritation as it attempted to grab her again. She ran to the area where Dash had dropped her book and started searching frantically for it. Suddenly, she found it wedged underneath a collapsed table; she crawled across the floor to try to reach it, but it was just too far away.

The zombie ghost snatched her ankle and dragged her out from underneath the table, hoisting her high in the air. It spun her right side up and held her by her neck, growling and trilling. It sniffed her and purred, causing the teen girl to shudder; what was it doing?

"Your pain and suffering is delicious," it spoke; the first words she'd ever heard it speak.

An ectoplasmic blast hit it square in the jaw, causing it to shriek in pain and drop Henry.

She screamed but was quickly caught by her phantom hero and set gently on the ground, "Henry, I really need you to get out of here now so I can fight this thing," he spoke in a serious tone.

She nodded and ran for the door, the crowd had almost completely gone and was running for safety in the street. The ghost tried to go after her, but Danny tackled him to the wall, making a large dent. Henry thought of something and turned down the sidewalk to head toward Danny's house.

The ghost easily kicked Danny off, it grabbed the nearest large object—in this particular case, the rotating chair from the new game—and ripped it out of the ground to throw at him.

"Hey!" the teen ghost shouted, "I never got a chance to play that!"

It hurled the piece of equipment at him, which he easily dodged. It growled in frustration and picked up object after object and threw them at Danny, who dodged them with relative ease. The zombie ghost had suddenly seemed weaker than it had been, which meant hopefully it would be easy to defeat. The ghost boy decided to use the 'headshot' technique, he released a blast right at its' head but this time, it didn't even flinch. So nevermind, its' attack may have dropped a bit, but its' defense went up, oh joy.

The monster shrieked loudly, the noise loud enough and high pitched enough to burst eardrums. Danny had to cover his ears again, but kept his eyes on the ghost. As soon as the shriek stopped, Danny started firing blast after blast like a machine gun, the bandages around the ghost's arms unwound and acting like whips split each blast. The bandages whipped around Danny and wrapped around him, effectively tying him down to keep him from fighting or escaping.

There was a flash of blue light, the ghost shrieked, and released Danny from its' bindings. He fell to the floor with a thud, and looked up. Henry had apparently run all the way to his house, climbed through his window, grabbed the thermos and ran back.

As soon as the ghost was securely inside the thermos, she rested both palms on her knees, panting heavily from running so fast, "Are you ok?" she asked between gasps.

He stood shaky on his feet, "Yeah, I'm all right, are you ok?"

"If I keep running like that I won't be fine," she joked and handed him the thermos, "I found something weird when I went to your house to get the thermos."

"Something weird?" he asked as he took the thermos.

"When I got to your house, I found the thermos had rolled on the floor and popped open, does it do that a lot?"

Danny blinked, "Uh, not really."

"Anyway, you need to find somewhere to change back," she motioned toward the crowd reforming outside out of curiosity, "Oh wait! My book!"

"I'll get it, just wait outside," he flew threw the wall into the alley behind the building to change back.

Henry came back outside, still panting and being careful not to trip on any rubble. She attempted to walk away casually to try not to draw attention. Sam and Tucker saw her and rushed forward to meet her.

"Dude, where's Danny?" Tucker looked around.

"Changing back, and getting my book," the redhead decided to see if the Walkman in her pocket was ok.

Sam sighed, "Gotta remember not to leave home without the thermos."

"Yeah," Henry pulled out her music player and rolled it around in her hands examining it, "but everything turned out ok in the end, so hopefully—"

"Hey freak!" came an all too familiar voice, "we need to finish our business," as he pound his fist against his other hand.

_Oh great_, Henry thought to herself as she saw Dash coming toward her again, red in the face and angry.

"Give it a rest Dash!" Sam shouted at him, standing between the jock and Henry.

There was a loud screech as tires skid down the street. A rusty old truck came barreling down the road, Henry stiffened and her heart seemed to skip a beat. When the driver saw her standing on the sidewalk, the truck made a fast U-turn, causing it to rock dangerously to the side. It drove up dangerously onto the sidewalk and stopped a few feet in front of the teens.

A dirty redneck threw open the driver's side door, climbed out and slammed it behind him, "Henrietta Cooper! What are you doing out here?"

A pair of wide terrified blue eyes stared up at him as he strode toward him, "W-what do you mean?" she asked with arms stiff down to her sides.

He pointed an angry finger toward her; "You were supposed to be home watching the boys tonight! I told you I was going out late tonight and you needed to babysit!"

Her brow furrowed in confusion, "No you didn't," she said, "I don't remember—"

…

Danny, now in his human form, searched around for Henry's book, not exactly sure where to look. He looked under a few tables and found it; he reached for it but couldn't quite reach it. Briefly looking around to make sure no one was watching, Danny used his ghost ability to extend his arm forward and carefully grab and pull the book out. He stood up and dusted it off; the cover was a little bent but otherwise intact.

He suddenly heard a commotion outside; he carefully stepped through the debris from the fallen walls and made his way outside. Danny got outside just in time to see Uncle Rege backhand Henry; she yelped and stumbled back a few steps, and in front of everyone in the street.

"Henry!" he rushed forward to her aid, but tripped in the rubble and fell flat on his face.

"Don't backtalk to me you little brat!" he continued to shout at her, "You know darn well that I told you this morning to watch them!" he grabbed her roughly by her hood and dragged her toward the truck, "Now get yourself on home now!"

The scruffy teen coughed, "Ow, wait, stop!" she gasped, "Stop it that hurts!"

Danny got back to his feet and ran over them as the redneck opened the passenger door and threw the struggling girl inside, "Leave her alone! What are you doing?" he shouted and grabbed Uncle Rege's shoulder when he reached him.

The older man shrugged him off, "This doesn't concern you kid, get out of the way," he slammed the door; unfortunately Henry's ankle was in the way and got slammed, causing her to shout in pain. He opened the door, grabbed her pant leg and tossed her foot inside and shut the door.

"Stop hurting her!" Danny screamed in anger as he grabbed Uncle Rege's shoulder again, this time a bit more firm.

"I said this doesn't concern you!" he shouted back at the teen and threw him to the ground, walked around to the driver's side, "Now get out of the way!" as he got in the truck, hit the gas and drove sloppily off the sidewalk and sped away.

Henry turned and looked out the back window and waved back at her friends, a forced smile on her face. Danny was borderline irate as he got up and watched them drive away, gripping the book in his hands tightly.

…

Henry winced slightly as she tied the zip-lock bag of ice to her slightly swollen ankle with a shoelace. She wished no one had to see what happened, but she couldn't really help that now. Uncle Rege was drunk again, and was probably going out drinking with his new drinking buddies, leaving her to handle the boys with a mashed ankle. It wasn't broken or anything, just sore; it would bruise but would quickly heal.

With a heavy sigh, the scruffy teen leaned over the side of her bed and found her Trigonometry book, grabbed a few sheets of notebook paper and an old calculator. There wasn't really much else to do; the boys were fed and were watching TV, and since she didn't have her book she figured she'd work on math instead. Henry pulled out her headphones and turned on some Disney music. She had just opened to the section about sine and cosine relations and had just started working on the first question when she heard a tap on her window.

She jumped and turned to the window, it was Danny of course. The redhead smiled and waved happily, turned down her Walkman, leaned over carefully and opened the window, "Hi babe, what're you doing here?"

Danny's expression was serious and somewhat hard, he handed her book to her, "I came to bring your book back."

"Yay! Thank you!" she took it graciously, "I didn't really feel like doing math homework, now I can read again."

She then realized how upset Danny was, his arms folded and his eyes focused intently on her, knowing she'd be able to read him. Henry dropped her cheery mood, "And no, I'm not ready to call the police."

"Are you serious?" he climbed in through the window and sat cross-legged on the end of her small bed, "Half the school was there, they saw what he did to you, do you really think you need to continue to suffer like this?"

Henry looked down at her book, gripping it tightly in both hands, "Yes, I do not want to leave this town, my school, my friends," she looked up at him with tears forming, "And I do not want to leave you."

"I don't want you to leave either," he sighed, "but I also don't like seeing you hurting like this."

"I'm fine," she faked, "guess I just didn't pay close enough attention to what he was talking about this morning."

Danny growled and ran his fingers through his hair, he knew she was just going to be stubborn about the whole thing and make up excuses, "All right, if you really insist, I won't say anything. But the next time I see him hurt you, I _will_ call the police, whether you me to or not. Three strikes and he's out."

"Ok," she said, leaning forward carefully and giving him a gentle kiss, "Thank you Danny."

He sighed again and rubbed his forehead against hers. Although he was torn between making her happy and doing what was best for her, he decided the compromise would suffice, for now. It was then Danny noticed the blue headband, "When did you get that?"

"Oh," Henry leaned back and traced it with her fingers, "I got it after I won that Pac-man game. I was trying to show you earlier but Dash decided to be a twat. I think it makes me look more like a girl, what do you think?"

He laughed, "I think it's cute, but I always thought you looked like a girl," he lied about when he first saw her, and that she did indeed look like a boy.

She scowled at him for a moment, "A few girls in my Computer Technology class hit on me until I told them I wasn't a boy. You don't have that class with me so you never saw it."

"No, guess not," he laughed again, "well, what are up to right now?"

"Nothing really, why?"

"A certain person told me if we are going to be dating then we should participate in each other's activities and hobbies, so what do you like to do?"

Henry blushed and scratched the back of her head, "Yeah, but I guarantee you won't like what I like to do."

"Well, you did give my video games a try," he leaned back slightly, "so I'm pretty sure I can give yours a try. So what do you like to do?"

She paused to think, "Let me see … I like to cook and clean, read interesting books, learn new things, listen to music, sing, talk about whatever, watch movies," she paused again and blushed, "and cuddle."

Danny blushed as well and smiled, "Well I can do a couple of those things."

"Henry!" came a shout from downstairs as a food-covered spoon flew over the banister and landed on the floor of Henry's room, "The movie is over! Put another one in!"

She sighed and went to get off the bed, "I'll be right back," and she limped across the room, picked up the spoon and started to slowly climb down the staircase.

Danny didn't want to see her struggle after their beckon-call, he got up off the bed and followed her downstairs, and making sure she didn't slip and fall. Most of the holes in the roof and walls had been nailed closed, patches of mismatched wallpaper had covered the parts of the walls that the previous wallpaper had peeled. The house looked like a safer place to live, but only just.

Ben and Tommy were sitting on the floor in front of the old TV, the credits for a movie playing. They each had a plate of food in their laps as they were watching the movie.

Henry strode slowly to the VCR and opened it to remove the old VHS, "So what do you guys wanna watch now?"

"Doomsday!" Ben cheered.

"No, I wanna watch Cloverfield!" Tommy interjected.

The scruffy teen put the movie back into its' case and placed it in its' place on the shelf, "You both know you're too young to watch those, and I don't want you guys having nightmares and waking up Uncle Rege."

They both jumped up to look through the rack of videos, chattering and arguing about which one to watch. Most were old Disney movies, since they were still too young to watch much else.

Henry leaned in toward Danny and whispered, "Can you tell Disney is a big thing in this household?" as he laughed, the redhead thought of something, "Have you eaten dinner?"

Danny thought for a moment, "No, I haven't."

"Well, I have dinner on the stove if you'd like," she pointed toward the kitchen, "I made beef and rice enchiladas, and there's plenty of leftovers."

"That sounds good to me," Danny said with a smile.

The two boys finally seemed to notice Danny, "What's _he_ doing here?" Ben glared.

"Be nice," Henry growled, "he just came over to hang out."

"Is he your boyfriend?" Tommy asked, still looking accusingly at the teen boy.

"Yes he is," as both teens blushed.

Ben turned back to the movie shelf, "If you guys decide to have sex, keep it down. I don't wanna hear you going at it."

Both teens blushed brightly and glanced at each other, "I said be nice," she growled through grit teeth, pinching Ben's side, "now hurry up and pick another movie."

As the two young boys continued to shuffle through the shelf, Henry quickly ushered Danny to the kitchen, "Sorry about that," she whispered.

"It's ok," Danny said quickly with a blush.

The delicious aroma of Mexican spices filled his nostrils; he looked in the direction the smell was coming from and found the pan. It was a big casserole dish with rolled tortilla shells stuffed with cheese, beans, beef, and rice, and then topped with red sauce and more cheese. It looked good, _really_ good.

"I'll get us a couple plates," Henry said and reached up to open the cupboard.

She was a bit short, and all the clean dishes were on a shelf ever so slightly out of her reach. The scruffy teen growled and walked to the corner to grab a stepping stool so she could reach. The dishes were old and a bit worn out, but still useable. Henry handed down a plate to Danny and grabbed her own. When she stepped down, she had forgotten about her sore ankle and stumbled in pain a bit, but recovered.

As Danny spooned himself some dinner, Tommy came running in and handed Henry a video, "We decided we wanna watch this one."

She held it up and read the cover, 'Alice in Wonderland', she glanced over at Danny, "I know we saw this just a couple weeks ago, are you ok watching it again?"

"Yeah, fine with me," he tasted some sauce on his thumb.

…

Even though they'd seen the movie not too long ago, this time around it was a bit more enjoyable. The only furniture to sit on was Uncle Rege's chair, and if it was big enough for his fat ass then it was big enough for the pair to snuggle up on. Henry still enjoyed the scene with the Cheshire Cat, and Danny was even starting to figure out the lyrics and tried to sing along, he failed but got points for trying. Ben and Tommy were laughing and making fun of Alice and how idiotic she was.

The teen girl stood up and gathered up dishes, "Now stay here, I gotta get something."

Ben watched for her to leave the room then turned to Danny, "So why would you like _her_?"

Danny was taken aback by the sudden subject change, "What do you mean?"

"If you're dating her then that means you like her, so why would you like her?"

The raven-haired teen thought, "Why _wouldn't_ I like her?"

Tommy leaned back toward Danny and whispered, "Because she's cursed."

"What do you mean 'cursed'?" he asked in mild irritation.

"Well, everyone she's ever lived with has died," Tommy continued, "so that means that you'll probably die too."

He glared down at the boys, "That's not really a nice thing to say about your own cousin."

"What?" Ben looked hurt, "It's true, we're just waiting around until the curse comes for us. But Uncle Rege beats her up every now and then that seems to stop the curse, so it hasn't come for us yet."

Danny growled and leaned down, "Do you really think hurting her is going to keep you from dying?"

"It's worked for the last three years," Tommy laughed.

Danny was about to give them an earful when Henry reentered the room holding a plate of cookies, "I decided it might be a nice treat to make cookies."

The boys cheered and jumped up, grabbing at the plate greedily. Danny was still irritated, but the cookies did smell good.

"Hey!" she shouted and fought off the two boys with her injured foot, "save some for us and Uncle Rege."

They groaned and sat down in front of the TV with their handfuls of cookies. Henry sat back down next to Danny and held the plate toward him, offering him a treat as well. He smiled, took one and bit into it; it was delicious.

The redhead could see the irritation in his eyes, "Is something wrong babe?"

Danny swallowed, "I'm all right, just got cold without you snuggling with me," he said with a smile.

Henry giggled and kissed his cheek, taking a cookie herself and snuggling closer to keep him warm. Even though Danny was a bit cold when she walked away, he didn't really want her to know what her cousins had said to him about her. He wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and hugged her tight, nuzzling the back of her head as she giggled again. _Cursed?_ Danny thought to himself, _There's no way someone as cute and sweet as she is could be cursed._

Not long after, all four had fallen asleep in the front room as the movie ended, and all that was left playing was the salt and pepper static, as a white noise lullaby.

…

End Chapter 10

…

Read and review, tell your friends! :3


	11. Heartbeat

Hey guys! Chapter 11 up! Pedophile moment! Read and Review! Tell your friends!

Note: I never watched and refuse to watch Phantom Planet because it ends the series, so for me it's as if it never happened. Just letting some people who have seen it and this doesn't quite fit timeline-wise, that's why. Imagine PP never happened and life moved on.

Another note: I don't really think sixteen and seventeen-year-olds should swear, also they don't swear in the series so why make them curse here? They don't swear in the series anyway. They can swear as adults, because by then they'll have earned the right to swear, lol.

Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright to Danny Phantom; this is fan-based for entertainment, not profit.

…

Chapter 11: Heartbeat

…

"Will you cut that out?" Danny half-heartedly growled.

Henry giggled, "You like it and you know it."

Truthfully, he actually _did_ like it, but it was a bit embarrassing that people were staring. The thing about Henry was that she was pretty good at reading people, and Danny was no exception. Ever since they'd sat down to lunch, the scruffy teen had been playing with his hair, running her fingers through it and nuzzling it and twirling strands around her fingers and clinging to his back like a koala bear as she had done many times before. Sam and Tucker sat in relative awkward silence while their friends did their 'boyfriend/girlfriend' thing.

The scruffy teen's tray of food sat untouched next to them, "Why don't you sit down and eat something?" Sam tried to suggest.

"Yeah, before I barf," Tucker said under his breath.

"No thanks," Henry nom'ed his head like a zombie, "I'm not hungry."

Danny felt her stomach gurgle against his back, which suggested otherwise. He sighed, picked up a carrot from her plate and handed it up to her.

"Carrot!" she snatched it and stuffed it in her mouth, still refusing to take her attention from his raven locks.

Sam laughed, "You guys are cute together, creepy but cute," as she took a bite out of her sandwich.

"I think you guys are just creepy," Tucker raised an eyebrow.

"Jealous?" Henry nuzzled Danny's crown.

"Why would I be jealous? Do you see everyone staring?"

"Yes," Danny handed up another carrot, which she took with equal enthusiasm. He could feel her jaw chewing against his head, "but I can't really stop her, I've tried."

"What about going intangible?" Tucker wasn't convinced.

"In front of all these people?" Danny opened Henry's milk and inserted a straw, "Besides, it's easier to just let her have her way," as he handed up her milk.

"Milk!" she took it and sipped it happily.

"Anyway, are we meeting up tonight to work on homework?" Sam tried to change the subject.

"Actually, I think I'm gonna go out tonight," the raven-hair teen rolled his eyes.

"A date?" Tucker said and leaned on an elbow.

"No," he glance up at Henry for a moment, "I need to talk to Plasmius about something."

Sam nearly choked on her mouthful of turf-wich, "What's so important that you need to go see _him_?"

"Just something," he said quietly, "don't worry about it."

"Oh, can I come?" Henry piped, "I've never met this 'Plasmius', is he a friend of yours?"

"Not really," Danny said with a scowl, "and no, you can't come with me."

"Aw, why not?" she looked down at him.

"Because he lives in Wisconsin, and I don't want him to know you exist."

"That's not very nice," she sounded hurt.

Danny realized how that sounded, "What I mean is he's one of my enemies, and I don't want him to meet you if he tries to use you against me in some evil plot. And you need to stay home and practice for the talent show tomorrow night."

"But baby," she whined and wrapped her arms around him.

"No."

"Baby," she started rocking him back and forth.

"No."

"Please?"

"No," he held up a burger to take a bite.

Henry growled; it was time to pull out the heavy artillery. Quick as a rabbit, she crawled onto the bench, straddled his lap, lifted up her hoodie front and pulled it over his head, positioning his face in a man's favorite place, "Please?"

"Ok," he quickly squeaked.

Quite satisfied with her technique, she pulled her hoodie back over his head, revealing she had mashed his burger, ketchup and mustard all over his mouth, "Did you get that all over my shirt?" she looked down under her collar; it looked like his hand acted like a shield between his burger and her shirt.

Danny was redder than a tomato with eyes the size of dinner plates, Henry smiled, "Plus if that zombie ghost decides that it wants to attack me while you're away, I'll be defenseless. Do you wanna leave me behind?"

He shook his head vigorously; if his girlfriend was going to spontaneously shove his face in her cleavage, he didn't want to loose that. He also really loved Henry and didn't want to see her hurt.

The scruffy teen grinned, "Thank you Danny," she gave him a kiss and was slightly startled when she got burger mush on her lips, "Mmm! That tastes good!" she grabbed Danny's hand and turned it so she could take a bite. She gave Danny another kiss, this time on the cheek, leaving a ketchup and mustard lip print, giggling at how cute it looked.

"No, this isn't awkward at all," Tucker said under his breath and turned away.

Henry gasped, "I left my pincushion in my locker!"

If she had been a guy, she may as well have T-bagged him when she jumped over his head and ran in the direction of her locker.

…

After Biology, Sam and Tucker decided to work on homework together while Danny and Henry paid a visit to his old friend. As sort of a way to say she was sorry for stealing Danny and hogging all his time, she left all her Biology notes as well as notes for other classes with them to study and to use for their homework. Tucker still didn't like his best friend spending so much time with his girlfriend and not with him and Sam, but Sam was indifferent, as long as Danny was happy.

The pair walked home, holding hands. The ghost boy was still skeptical about taking her with him, but she was right about the zombie ghost. It obviously had some sort of vendetta with her or something, as it constantly sought her out specifically, what did it want with her?

"Can we stop by my house before we go?" Henry asked, "I wanna grab something for the trip."

"That's fine," Danny shrugged, "I wanna grab something from my house too."

She gave his hand a warning squeeze, "Don't you dare leave me behind! If you do, I'll kill you in your sleep."

"Not if I kill you first, and I promise I won't leave you behind," he smiled sheepishly.

"Ok, we'll meet back up right here in two minutes," she pointed to the ground as they reached the corner.

"All right," he gave her a kiss, "I'll see you in a bit."

Henry ran up the steps to her house and Danny ran down the street to his. All he needed to do was drop off his backpack and grab one thing, shouldn't take too long.

As he entered his room, Danny glared at the thermos sitting on his desk. After Henry told him that the thermos had pretty much spontaneously popped open last week, he had decided to try to super glue the darn lid closed. He wasn't sure it would hold, but it couldn't hurt to try. Supposedly the zombie ghost was still in there, but when it keeps somehow reappearing after he either throws it into the ghost zone and locks the door or seals it in the thermos is cause for concern.

Nonetheless, he had a few questions to ask Vlad Masters, one of which concerning whether he knows anything about the ghost. Danny shuddered at the thought of stooping so low as to go to _him_ of all people, but he was a halfa too, the only other halfa in existence, if he didn't know, who did?

Danny tossed his backpack on his bed and ran down to the lab. He sifted through the various gadgets in the lab in his search for one in particular; he found it buried in one of the boxes. He tucked the article under one arm and dashed out the door before his parents and sister could see him and stop him with their nonsense.

Henry wasn't waiting on the street corner; she was probably still doing whatever she said she needed to do. Danny decided to just go to her house and pick her up there. He carefully climbed the twisted staircase to her porch and knocked on her door. The door opened and Henry wrapped her arms around him.

"Has it been two minutes already?" she questioned.

"Not quite, I just needed to do something quick, are you ready?"

"Almost, finishing packing my bag and I've gotta prep myself for flying," and she skipped to the kitchen.

Danny closed the door behind him, making sure Ben and Tommy weren't home to see him. He knew he could fly there in no time, and he also knew Henry was still afraid of flying; she was going far out of her comfort zone in order just to come with him.

He watched Henry walk out of the kitchen stuffing something in her bag, "What's in there?"

"Oh, a peace offering," she held up her bag proudly, "if he really is your enemy and we're going to see him, we should at least appease him to quell his wrath."

"Uh, ok," he knew she had the best intentions, but wasn't sure how effective it would be, "Oh, and I brought something for you," and he held up the gadget.

The scruffy teen looked at it curiously, "Oooo, that looks nifty, what is it?"

"It's called the Specter Deflector, it helps repel ghosts when you turn it on," he clasped it around her small waist, "Just don't turn it on around me, it'll zap me and it kinda hurts."

"Cool!" she pulled her hoodie down around it to hide it, "I feel like a secret agent!"

He laughed, "Yeah, it'll help give you that extra protection."

Henry giggled, "Thank you," she gave him a kiss on the lips. But she decided to be a bit of a troll; she turned the knob on and sent a zap through their kiss.

Danny jumped back and shook his head, rubbing his face, "Hey! Don't do that!"

She laughed again, "Sorry, had to make sure it worked," and switched it back off, "I promise I won't do it again."

He knew she'd always hold up a promise, but it was still a bit irritating. Two blue rings formed at his waist and separated to reveal his ghost side, "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, gimme a sec," Henry closed her eyes and relaxed as best as she could, "ok, let's go," and swung her backpack over her shoulder.

Danny turned around and she climbed onto his back in piggyback fashion, "Ok, here we go," as he turned them both invisible and intangible and flew through the roof and set out for Wisconsin.

…

About ten minutes into flight, Danny felt Henry shifting on his back, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," as she pulled out headphones, "I'm just bored, gonna turn on some music, wanna listen too?"

"Sure, if I can hear it over your headphones."

"Yeah, I've just gotta turn it all the way up," as she hung them around her neck and fiddled with the play button.

It took a bit for the old music player to start up. A song came on that was a bit hard to distinguish, then Danny realized it was 'Ghostbusters'. He looked over his shoulder, "Really?"

Henry giggled, "I thought it seemed appropriate."

She was right, it kinda was, and when she started singing along with the song the ghost boy couldn't help but laugh, and he decided to sing along as well.

_If there's something strange_

_In your neighborhood_

_Who you gonna call?_

_GHOSTBUSTERS!_

_If there's something weird_

_And it don't look good_

_Who you gonna call?_

_GHOSTBUSTERS!_

They fist pumped in the air each time they shouted 'Ghostbusters!"

Henry played several other fun 80s and 90s songs like 'Mr. Roboto', 'Take on Me', and 'Tarzan Boy', old songs they could both sing to so the flight seemed to go by faster. In no time at all, Danny could see Vlad's mansion approaching in the distance; he shuddered at the thought.

Henry sensed his tension, "Is that his house?" as she turned done her headphones, "It's huge!"

"Yeah," Danny furrowed his brow in anger, "he uses his ghost powers for evil to gain wealth and money and power."

"Hmm," she thought out loud, "That's not very nice, what's he like?"

The teen ghost tried to pinpoint the best way to phrase it, "He's a complete fruitloop."

…

Danny sighed heavily as he reached up to knock on the large heavy door. Henry stood next to him and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. After what seemed like an eternity, the heavy door finally opened to reveal a mature, silver-haired man in an elegant suit and an equally elegant demeanor.

"Ah, if it isn't young Daniel Fenton," he said in a pleasant yet snide tone, "what brings you to my steps unannounced? And so willingly as well?"

Danny glared at him, "Trust me Plasmius, you're the last person I'd come to see 'willingly', but I have a few questions that I need to ask you."

"Questions? What kind of questions?" it was then that he noticed Henry, "And who is this young man with you?"

The scruffy teen ignored the 'young man' comment, deciding it was funnier to see his reaction when she started talking, "Hi, I'm Danny's girlfriend, my name is Henrietta Cooper, but most people simply call me Henry," as she held out her hand politely.

Vlad's expression was priceless when he realized she was a girl, but he quickly regained his composure; the blue headband should have given away her true gender, "Well, my dear Henrietta, it's a pleasure to meet—"

The moment their hands touched, the older man's expression changed as he felt a charge that jarred his entire body through his hand from her touch. It was a very pleasant sensation, one that seemed to energize him. He looked wide-eyed down at the small hand clasped in his own.

Danny growled and swatted his hand away, Henry swung her backpack off her shoulder, opened it and held up a Tupper-wear box, "and I brought some brownies for you!" she chirped happily.

Again Vlad regained his composure, "My, what a lovely, thoughtful child, please come in," he stepped to the side and swept a hand inside graciously.

"Thank you Mr. Plasmius!" Henry chimed and walked blissfully inside.

Vlad flinched and Danny explained, "It's ok, she knows we're both ghosts, she found out I was a ghost a couple months ago and I told her before we came here that you were a ghost too, she's ok with it and won't tell anyone."

The silver-haired man chuckled darkly as he ushered Danny inside, then turned back to the teen girl, "My dear, you may call me Vlad Masters, or Mr. Masters, or simply Vlad, as it is my true name."

She froze, "Oh, I did not know you preferred your real name," she bowed politely, "please forgive me, I meant no offense by it."

"Oh, that's quite all right, young miss," he ruffled her hair gently, "you sure are quite a darling little girl, aren't you?"

Danny growled and clenched his fists; he didn't like his archenemy being so close to his girlfriend. Henry either didn't seem to mind or care, in her usually unreadable mannerism. She looked up and beheld the wide hallway lined with green and gold. There were jerseys and framed autographed photos along the walls and a long green and gold rug with a big white 'G' in the center.

"Are you a Packers enthusiast?" Henry asked as she marveled at the elaborate decorations.

Vlad smiled, "Why yes I am, an enthusiast yes, fanatic no. Fanatic is such a negative word," he laughed low in his throat, "But I am a bit surprised that a young lady like yourself knows about football."

"Are you kidding?" she raised her arms over her head, "We used to watch football every Sunday night until our cable got shut off, that was a sad day. But I've always been a fan of the Denver Broncos."

"Oh really?" Vlad scowled down at her, "And why is that?"

"Because I grew up in Colorado," then she smirked to herself and decided to pick a fight, "that and they defeated the Packers in the Super Bowl XXXII."

The older man visibly flinched, "Statistically, the Packers have the most wins and fans in the league!"

"But the Broncos have made it to more Super Bowls than the Packers have!" the scruffy teen retorted.

The two 'enthusiasts' stared each other down as they defended their favorite team. Danny didn't even know Henry watched football; guess you learn something new everyday. He did, however, know how easily she could be distracted.

"Hey Henry, did you leave your headphones on? I thought I heard 'Ghostbusters' playing."

"I hope not! I don't know how much battery life I have!" she quickly pulled out her music player to make sure it was off, and seemed to forget about the previous argument with the older man.

Vlad cleared his throat, "Quite a charming young lady."

…

Vlad's mansion was huge; Henry clung to Danny's arm for fear that she'd get lost until they reached the silver-haired man's study. Both halfa's had struck a temporary truce whilst they had their little discussion. Vlad offered the teens beverages, Henry happily accepted a lemonade while Danny declined; he still didn't trust his archenemy. Despite the truce, as he knew truces with his enemies didn't last long.

"So," Vlad drummed in his fingers together, "what is troubling your mind so much as to pay me a visit, little badger?"

Danny glanced over at Henry, "I actually planned on this being a private conversation," remembering how much she begged to come along no matter how many times he said no.

"Ah," she gave him a thumbs up, "gotcha," and pulled out her headphones and another thick book from her bag.

"I mean, a _really_ private conversation," he hinted.

The redhead stared at him for a moment, "You didn't come all this way to talk about the birds and the bees, did you?"

Danny groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, Vlad simply chuckled, "My dear, I happen to have a copy of the Super Bowl match between the Packers and the Broncos if you'd like to view that while Daniel and I speak."

"Would I ever!" she jumped up.

"Here, I'll escort you to my viewing room."

She cocked her head to the side, "But don't you have to stay here and talk to Danny?"

"Yes, but I can simply do this," he smirked as he separated into two bodies.

Henry jumped and squeaked, looking between both Vlads, "You ghosts do the weirdest things!"

"Come my dear," the duplicate Vlad stepped forward, "allow me to take you to the viewing room."

"Uh, ok" she gave Danny a kiss on the cheek, "Play nice," and followed the duplicate Vlad out of the room.

Danny watched them leave, then turned to the Vlad in front of him, "If you harm a hair on her head, you'll be sorry."

"Oh, don't worry, little badger," the older man laughed and sat in a comfortable leather armchair across from the younger halfa, "I promise you she is perfectly safe."

He wasn't too convinced, but Vlad didn't seem too particularly menacing today, so he relaxed a bit, but refused to drop his guard. Danny sat down in an identical chair across from the older man, a mixture of caution, concern, worry, and thoughtfulness. Vlad could read the signs on his face as he sipped his tea.

"Well," Danny started, trying to find the right words, "I have a question about our ghost sides."

"Oh?" the older man raised an eyebrow, "Regarding what?"

The raven-haired teen sighed and decided it was easiest to be simple and blunt, "Several weeks ago, when Henry first discovered I was part ghost, she told me my ghost side didn't have a heartbeat. But when I changed back in my normal human self, she told me I did have a heart beat. Then she told me ghosts are spirits of the dead that are bound to this world by unfinished business," he saw Vlad pause from sipping his tea, "My question is this: if we are half ghost, does that mean our other half is dead?"

The silver-haired man set his cup of tea down and dawned a very serious face, "A very grim topic if I must say so myself."

"I know, but it's been on my mind for so long, I had to find out, and since you're half ghost like me, I thought you might have the answer."

There was a long pause between them, then Vlad simply said, "Yes."

Danny gasped, his eyes widened slightly as Vlad continued, "Our accidents were different but had similar results. During _my_ incident, I was hospitalized for three years. I was told I died during my stay, but the doctors were baffled that I had no heartbeat but was still able to walk and talk. I did my research and discovered the macabre side of ghosts. I didn't believe at first, but after much thought and research, I began to realize that it was all true."

He paused to let it sink in, "I suppose in _your_ accident though, it wasn't nearly as severe as mine. You didn't need to visit a hospital, so you didn't find out for yourself. No one thought to check and they all simply assumed you were still well, relatively speaking. But it's true; technically you died in that accident, Daniel."

The teen boy looked down, gripped his jeans tightly and furrowing his brow in shock disbelief. Vlad had to be the best one to ask, but could it really be true?

"Are you all right, little badger?" the older man genuinely sounded concerned.

Danny snapped out of it, "I'm fine."

Suddenly, they heard Henry shouting from somewhere in the large mansion, "_YEAH! TOUCHDOWN BRONCOS! WOOHOO! WHAT? WHAT DO YOU MEAN FOUL? FAIL! FAIL!_"

Vlad couldn't help but chuckle, as he already knew what was happening in the other room.

…

Henry sat down angrily in her seat, "That was totally legitimate! The game is rigged!"

The duplicate Vlad sat next to her, both astonished and amused by her reaction, "Quite the enthusiasm my dear."

"I missed this match when I was younger. I know the Broncos won, but I don't know the details of how," she folded her arms as she pouted.

The older man was quite intrigued by her, and her touch from earlier. He reached an arm around the back of her chair to rest against her backrest, which she didn't even notice as she stared at the screen intently. After making sure she was still oblivious, he slowly rested his hand on her shoulder. He felt the energizing sensation again through his hand, it sent a pleasant shiver up his spine.

Henry was still unaware of his advance until she felt him lean in and sighed deeply, "Uh, what are you doing?"

"I find you to be a very … interesting, miss Henrietta," as he started rubbing her shoulder, the very movement creating a charge in the friction.

"Uh, how so?" she blinked several times.

Vlad smirked and looked down at her, "You've had quite a lot of tragedy in your past, haven't you?"

The scruffy teen shivered slightly, "Yeah," she was ok sharing her past with friends, but not this stranger she'd only met no more than twenty minutes ago.

He laughed darkly, "I can tell," he leaned in, "I find your pain and suffering very intoxicating."

She gasped and stared wide eyed at him; that was almost exactly what the zombie ghost had said to her during their last encounter! She tried to scoot away, but the hand on her shoulder held firm. Was this cousin Scotty all over again?

Like a lion circling his prey, Vlad leaned in toward her neck and inhaled deeply, sending a noticeable shiver down her back, "Please stop that," she squeaked.

"Oh, I'm sorry for my rudeness my dear," he smirked at his prey, "I just must have contact with you. You feel so good, and smell so good."

Henry started to shake when she felt a manly hand caress her thigh slowly. This _is_ Scotty all over again! "Get away from me!" she shouted as she pushed him off her.

She got up and quickly dashed out the door. She was just about to call for Danny's help, when she felt a pair of strong hands reach through the wall and pull her back against the older man's chest. One hand clasped over her mouth while the other wrapped around her waist, effectively trapping her arms to keep her from struggling.

"Calm down my dear," he whispered in her ear, "Daniel and I are having a very in-depth conversation, we mustn't interrupt them now."

Henry trembled in fear as the older man held her fast. She then remembered the Specter Deflector belt Danny had given to her. She barely managed to reach it and turned it on, sending a powerful zap through the duplicate Vlad. He shouted slightly, and then disappeared. The scruffy teen growled and brushed herself off, then stomped down the hall in the direction of the study where Danny and the real Vlad were.

…

Danny shook his head slightly when he heard Henry's initial outburst over the game in the other room. She always was a very exaggerated person.

"Now my dear boy," Vlad drummed his fingers together, "Do you have any other questions you wish to ask me?"

"Yes," Danny focused on the task at hand, "Recently, Henry has been under attack from a ghost, mainly from this one specific ghost. During our last encounter with it, she told me it said 'Your pain and suffering is delicious,' do you have any idea what it might be talking about?"

The older man had to choose his words wisely on this one, "Let me ask you something; why are you drawn so much to miss Henrietta?"

Danny froze at the sudden question, "What do you mean?"

"Why are you drawn so much to her?" Vlad repeated, "Or at least, why do you love her?"

The teen ghost wasn't sure what he was referring to, "Well, she's cute, generous, considerate, thoughtful, sweet, and fun to be around, it's never a boring day with her around. When I'm near her, I just feel so happy."

"What about her tragic past?"

Danny stiffened, "How do you know about her past?"

Vlad laughed and elaborated in a darker tone, "Ghost are drawn to sad souls filled with pain, suffering, and heartache. If this ghost is after her, then he must be drawn to her pain."

"What are you saying?" Danny glared.

"Oh come now Daniel," Vlad clasped his hands together, "you can't honestly say you don't feel it too."

"I don't feel anything like that, being around her just makes me feel happy—"

"Exactly my point, her pain is like a drug to you, whether you know it or not. You want to be around her constantly; you're feeding off her. Same as this ghost you were referring to," he laughed as his tone dropped even more, "I find her quite intoxicating myself."

Danny stood up as if to beat the man senseless for saying such things, when the door was thrown wide open. There the teen girl stood, red in the face from anger and embarrassment. She stepped in; both ghosts felt the fury radiating from her.

"Danny! We are leaving!" Henry growled as she gathered up her possessions and stuffed them roughly in her backpack.

The raven-haired teen blinked a few times, "Are you ok?"

She swung the backpack over her shoulder, grabbed Danny's arm and forcefully dragged him toward the front door, "I said we are leaving _now_!"

Danny was confused; did the Broncos lose? But he knew she was extremely upset by her lack of contraction and her tone, so it was best not to argue with her.

The older man stood up and walked them to the door, "Well, I did enjoy your visit, we should get together again sometime. I'd love to have you over more often."

"Fat chance," Henry growled under her breath.

She roughly threw open the front doors and pushed Danny out forcefully, "Come on, change back and let's go home."

"Ok," he said simply and did as he was told as she climbed onto his back.

"Do feel free to drop by anytime, little badger," Vlad said mostly to himself as they sped off.

He smirked to himself and went back inside to his study. There was a slight spring in his step from being energized by the young girl. The box of brownies she'd brought sat untouched on the coffee table. The silver-haired man took out a brownie and took a bite. The same charge entered his mouth; apparently she could put her pain into her cooking, making it the perfect ghost delicacy.

…

The pair flew in silence back toward Amity Park, Danny mulling the new information around in his mind and Henry fuming after the encounter. To help distract herself from the unpleasant thoughts in her head, she nuzzled her face into the white hair Danny now sported. She wasn't sure why, but she just loved playing with his hair so much, it was comforting. His scent and presence made her feel safe.

Danny sighed and leaned up into her touch, "So what did you think of Vlad?"

Henry stiffened and her anger started to bubble again, "He's a complete fruitloop."

…

End Chapter 11

…

Same rules apply, read and review! Tell your friends! I'll be back as soon as I can! :3

**For people lost in the timeline, it's the last week of September.


	12. The Talent Show

Sorry for the extended absence, had a lot on my plate and had writer's block. This chapter is going to be long and might seem kinda rushed, just because there are details I wanted to cram in. I finally brought myself to watch Phantom Planet, it was ok, wrapped up the series fairly well, but it's still not going to be too relevant to this fic, maybe much later, but not now. So it's here at last, the talent show in front of the whole school! Let's see how it turns out. Read and review! Tell your friends!

Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright to Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon do, please don't sue me.

…

Chapter 12: The Talent Show

…

Danny and Henry got home late after flying to Wisconsin and back in one day. After their visit with Vlad, they both wanted to just go to bed; unfortunately neither of them was able to sleep well. Danny lay wide awake still contemplating what the older halfa had told him, about his ghost side being dead and the zombie ghost likely being drawn to Henry's pain, and the possibility that _he_ might be drawn to her pain. It seemed he had just closed his eyes to sleep when his alarm for school went off.

With a loud groan, Danny rolled out of bed and onto the floor. He was too tired to stand up, so he literally crawled to the bathroom; a cold shower was just what he needed to wake up. Good thing it was a Friday, then he could sleep in the next few days.

The cold shower didn't quite do the trick, but it couldn't be helped, he'd just be falling asleep in school. No big deal, he often slept through his classes, and Henry always took great notes so he could look at those when he woke up. Wait, would she be as tired as he was? Hopefully she wouldn't be too tired.

Again, for some reason, Henry wasn't waiting for him on the sidewalk. _Is she updating her will again?_ the thought crossed Danny's mind. With a heavy sigh, he set out up to her house and up her tree. Henry had decided to start leaving her window cracked so Danny didn't need to tap on it every time, scaring the jeepers out of her. Keeping her window cracked also helped her hear if someone was climbing her tree so she wasn't so startled when someone showed up outside her window.

Danny got to her window and saw her still snuggled up in bed in her pajamas. Didn't she realize school starts soon? The raven-haired teen opened her window and gently shook her to wake her up. Henry snorted lightly and turned to face him, rubbing one eye with a loose fist.

"You need to wake up or we'll be late for school," he whispered quietly.

"No we won't," as she rolled back over.

"What? Yes we will," he was confused.

"I did the calculations," she said with a lazy sigh, "if we walk briskly or even if you fly us to school then we still have a half hour to sleep."

Danny was about to argue again when Henry patted the bed behind her, "Uh, what are you doing?"

"Come snuggle, we have half an hour and I set the alarm clock," she said, "So you're either gonna be sitting there for the next thirty minutes or snuggling. Take your pick."

He blushed slightly and opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He sighed quietly, knowing that once her mind was made up she was too stubborn to change. Slowly, Danny opened the window enough for him to climb in and closed it behind him. Henry folded back the blanket behind her and motioned for him to lay down. With another blush, the ghost teen kicked his shoes onto the floor, set his backpack somewhere near them and slowly slid under the blanket behind her. The bed was small, but with their close proximity space wasn't too big a problem.

The redhead reached behind her and snatched Danny's arm, cuddling it against her chest like a teddy bear. He blushed one more time then gently settled his face against the back of her neck. She felt his warm, rhythmic breathing against her skin, causing her to blush as well.

Danny didn't think he'd be able to sleep with her there, snuggled so close, but in no time at all, darkness enveloped him.

…

This time, sleep seemed to last longer, Danny wasn't sure if it was because Henry was there or if he was just too tired, but it was a nice nap. The alarm clock buzzed and the teen girl sat up slightly, "School time," she said lazily and shut it off.

She lightly tossed the blanket and Danny's arm off her, sat up on the edge of the bed and stretched, "Come one lazy bones, time to get up," as she patted his hip.

He groaned and propped himself up on his elbows. That was a slightly more restful sleep, but they did need to get to school. Henry stood up and a slightly devilish thought crossed his mind; he reached over and pinched her butt, causing her to squeak in surprise.

"Hey!" she faked a pout,

"What?" he said slyly, "I couldn't resist, it was just such an open and inviting target."

She swatted his hand, "Well, please try to keep your hands to yourself today. I have too much to concentrate on without being molested."

Danny knew what she was referring to; the talent show was tonight, and she was obviously nervous.

"Cover your eyes," Henry instructed, "I don't want you watching me undress," then very quietly added, "yet."

With a bright blush, the raven-haired teen did as he was told.

…

They just barely made it to class before the bell rang and both decided not to cut it that close again. Same as usual, Henry pulled out one of her books while the rest of the class started on 'Pride and Prejudice', and boy was Henry right about it being easy to get lost in.

About halfway through first period, there came an announcement over the intercom.

"All students participating in the talent show tonight, please report to the auditorium," came the principal's voice.

Paulina stood up happily and strode toward the door with almost too much confidence. Henry hesitated, trying to pretend she didn't she didn't hear the announcement, but a slight nudge from Danny forced her to pay attention. She sighed in irritation, stood up and made her way to the door; she still wasn't very happy about even entering the contest. They left their backpacks at their desks since they wouldn't be gone the entire rest of the period.

Henry ignored whatever snide comments Paulina happened to say to her as they walked down the hall; she had more important things on her mind. She reviewed over and over in her head a song she already knew by heart, focusing on putting all the passion she could into it just like her Grandpa told her.

Several other students joined them as they neared the auditorium, obviously other participants in the show. Butterflies viciously danced in her stomach as she realized how many people she was facing. Henry hadn't realized so many students had made it through, and she'd have to beat all of them, as well as Paulina. With a scowl and a sudden surge of determination, she began to prepare herself for her hellish nightmare.

…

It didn't take too incredibly long, about twenty minutes. Both Paulina and Henry reentered their classroom with relatively the same mindset they'd left with. The bell rang not long after that; Danny, Sam and Tucker gathered around Henry to get the scoop.

"So what was that about?" Sam asked first.

"Just telling us the time the show starts and what time we need to be there," the scruffy girl simply stated.

Danny raised an eyebrow, "That doesn't take twenty minutes."

"Well, that's basically it, not much else to say," she then turned to Danny, shaking a finger at him, "And if you miss _this_ performance, I'll kill you in your sleep."

He just laughed and scratched the back of his head, "Not if I kill you first, and I promise I won't miss it."

Henry turned around and folded her arms, "Well, we both know you aren't very good at keeping promises."

"Hey! That's not fair!" he protested.

"I am serious," she turned back to him, a small hint of fear in her eyes, "I can not do it without your support. It is one thing to do it as a private audition, but a performance in front of the whole school is a different matter entirely."

Danny blinked a few times then smiled, "I'll be there, even if I break both my legs."

"If you _do_ miss it, then _I_ willbreak both your legs."

…

Math went by slower than molasses, but Henry preoccupied herself with her Trigonometry to try to get her mind off the show; it didn't help very well with other students talking about said show. Luckily Danny was there to give her the occasional reassuring back rub to help relax her, but to no avail. Though class was just less than two hours long, it felt like seven hours before the bell for lunch rang.

They met up with Sam and Tucker for lunch, same as always, and decided to eat outside while the weather was still nice. Storm clouds were starting to roll in so they wanted to get fresh air while they still could. Henry remarked how funny it was that it was going to rain today of all days, and her friends did admit it was kinda funny.

Danny looked at Henry's lunch tray and noticed her small meal, "Why are you having just carrots and water for lunch? That's not much to eat."

"It's all I can eat right now," she picked up a carrot and took a bite, "eating certain things causes flem to build up and depreciate the quality of singing. So for today, no dairy products, no foods high in sugar, bread, fruits, meat, or greasy foods for me. Basically water and veggies are best."

"Hmm," Sam took a bite of her salad, "I didn't know so much went into that."

"Yeah, singing opera is hard enough with the voice getting stuffed up with mucus."

"That paints quite the mental image," Tucker said as he picked up a French fry.

Danny patted her on the back once more, "I'm sure you'll do fine."

"I just wanna beat out that nasty Paulina," Henry growled, scrunching her face in irritation, "that girl just makes me want to kick puppies."

…

The rest of school just seemed to drag on, Henry found herself even trying to pay attention in her Chemistry class, though it still felt like it was over her head. If she was willing to at least pay attention then it was beyond a miracle, and her teacher even knew it. Thus far, she had yet to do any of her Chemistry homework or assignments, but now she was actually writing down notes and had even opened her book. Focusing on this impossible subject was helping her get her mind off things.

The bell rang and on to American History; they were finishing up with the American Revolutionary War era and having a test, which Henry wasn't fully prepared for but did well enough that she was confident with the teacher grading it as a solid 'B'. It was always those dates she got mixed up, but hopefully she got them right this time.

Soon enough, school was over and everyone was dismissed for the day. The quartet of friends started their usual walk home, jabbering about the events of the day, though Henry was quiet for the most part. They soon parted as Tucker and Sam's homes were in different directions, leaving Danny and Henry to walk by themselves.

"So, what time do you need to be back at the school?" Danny asked suddenly.

The scruffy girl flinched slightly, "I need to be there by six, the show starts at seven and goes until whenever performances are finished."

There was a loud crash of thunder as the sky threatened to start raining then and there. Henry growled and shouted up at the sky, shaking her fist angrily.

"I know already! Stop reminding me that you feel like storming today!"

Danny couldn't help but laugh at her outburst, she glared at him, "What's so funny?" a thought crossed her mind and she grinned devilishly, " 'Little Badger'?"

The raven-haired teen stopped and gave her an irritated look, "Don't call me that," a thought crossed his mind as well and he smirked, " 'Pumpkin-head'?"

Henry stared at him for a moment and laughed, "I actually like being called Pumpkin-head. Can't I call you Little Badger?"

Danny scowled at nothing in particular, "I'd rather you didn't," the thought that that was the nickname Vlad had given him peeked in his mind.

"Aww, but badgers are so cute! Have you ever seen a badger?" she genuinely seemed to perk up at the subject change.

"Not really," he continued to scowl as they walked.

"Well, they're all black and white and look so cute and cuddly," she pounced on him with a great big hug, "and you're black and white and cute and cuddly."

Her enthusiasm and charm seemed to lighten the subject. Henry wasn't trying to insult him by calling him that; she was using it in a different context than Vlad does.

Danny half-heartedly groaned, "All right, if you terribly want to, you can call me that."

"Yay!" she gave him another big hug and a kiss on the cheek, "My cute and cuddly Little Badger," she nuzzled him affectionately.

If she was going to do that every time she called him that, then for now it was ok if she wanted to. Besides, it seemed to make her happy to call him that. Danny briefly thought of what Vlad had said to him yesterday, about feeding off her pain. He decided to take a risk and conduct an experiment. The raven-haired teen reached around her and pinched her side.

Henry squealed and punched his arm angrily, "What did you do that for?"

Danny rubbed his now sore arm, "Ow, I was just trying something—"

"Trying what? Trying to make me mad?" she stomped passed him.

_Yes_, he thought to himself, still rubbing his arm; she could punch pretty hard when she wanted to. Well, he sure wasn't feeling very good after causing her pain, so maybe Vlad was wrong about yesterday. Danny cautiously tried to hold her hand apologetically, which after a bit of persuasion, Henry allowed him to, leaning against his shoulder as if to say she was sorry for punching him.

That made Danny feel warm and happy again; yeah, Vlad was definitely wrong.

…

They walked up to Henry's front porch, "Are you going to take me back to the school in a couple hours? About five fifteen?"

Danny smiled and kissed her forehead, "I promise I'll be here."

"Ok," Henry yawned, "I think I'm gonna take a nap, wanna join me?" she offered.

The raven-haired teen blushed; he wasn't really planning on doing anything for the rest of the day, probably stay at home and play video games or something. But cuddling this morning was nice and restful, so …

He was about to respond when his ghost sense went off, prompting a very irritated look from his girlfriend.

"Nevermind," she opened her front door, "Go do your hero thing, just make sure you're done in time for the show, please?" and shut the door behind her.

With a heavy sigh, Danny quickly dashed down the steps and into an alley across the street to transform into Danny Phantom. _If it's the zombie ghost again, so help me_, Danny mentally growled. It was then he had never been happier to see Skulker, until of course he was captured in one of his nets, which delivered a massive shock, knocking Danny unconscious.

…

Henry had been standing on the street corner for almost half an hour. At first, she was trying to be understanding about him being ten minutes or so late, but now she was very hurt and disappointed. She almost couldn't believe he was standing her up now. _Why would he do this today of all days?_ she questioned mentally.

A single drop of rain hit her cheek and she looked up. The dark clouds had gathered overhead and were taunting the scruffy teen with a storm on top of her foul mood. That would've absolutely been the icing on the cake. Henry couldn't wait any longer; she was going to be late.

She pulled her hood over her head and took off down the street; thank heavens for her parkour skills.

…

Danny awoke in a daze some time later to surroundings he thought he recognized. It took him a moment to realize where he was. He was in the ghost zone, in a dense jungle, Skulker's jungle to be exact. _Oh great_, the ghost teen thought to himself as he shakily climbed to his feet, _What lame scheme has he cooked up now?_

He sighed and jumped up in an attempt to fly, but for some reason, he couldn't, and fell face first to the ground. With a heavy groan, he pushed himself up and spit out a mouthful of dirt and grass. Danny coughed and wiped his chin with the back of his hand, looked down, and realized why he couldn't use his ghost powers. He wasn't wearing his black and white jumpsuit; he was wearing his normal street clothes.

"Skulker!" the raven-haired teen shouted at the sky, knowing the hunter was watching him, "This isn't cool! I've got somewhere very important I have to be!" and shook a fist angrily.

It was then Danny realized something was around his neck; he reached up and felt some sort of collar clasped there, obviously the device keeping him from going ghost. He just hoped it wasn't a collar like Wulf's that would shock him. The teen attempted to pry it off his neck, rolling on the ground and growling as he pulled frantically at the collar but it wouldn't budge.

With a heavy groan, he lay on his back; whatever the mechanical ghost had planned, he would be forced to play along.

Two figures crouched behind a large boulder high on a mountain overlooking the entire jungle, watching the teen struggle and shout in frustration. One grinned wide and evil at his pain, Skulker stood next to it and scowled at the ghost.

"So, I've brought to ghost child as you requested, now will you release me?" he growled.

A large clawed hand shot toward him and pinned him to the ground, "I don't like your tone, would you like to take his place?" the other ghost hissed.

Skulker was genuinely scared, "No, no! What I was trying to say was—" the clawed hand squeezed tighter, causing the suit to spark slightly, "What I meant was, shouldn't the hunt begin? Before the ghost child figures out a way to escape?"

The other ghost smirked again and retracted its' hand, "Yes, it is time for the hunt to begin, I want to taste his pain and fear," then it swiftly climbed to the top of the cliff and let out a loud shriek.

Danny stopped and shuddered at the all too familiar sound, though this time is was somehow different. He spun around to face the direction the cry it came from; his heart sank when he beheld the creature. _Oh no! Not him again!_ he thought in panic.

The zombie ghost had changed and evolved again, this time to a more feral, quadruped animal, resembling the skeleton and rotting flesh of a wolf, although much, _much_ bigger. No matter how many times it transformed, he always knew who it was.

It let out one more feral shriek, which sounded like something from Jurassic Park, and it leapt from the cliff toward the ground at the base of the mountain. Danny felt the tremor through the ground as the beast landed and could feel the vibrations as it charged through the undergrowth toward him, several trees snapping and falling. The raven-haired teen shouted in fear, turned the other direction and ran as fast as he could away from the path of the ghost. If he had his ghost powers he probably could've at least fought off the ghost and escape, but now he was pretty much helpless against it.

Danny could hear the thundering beast hot on his trail; he veered off in an attempt to lose the creature and hid behind a tree, crouching as close as roots as he could, shuddering and panting loudly. He heard the ghost skid to a stop just on the other side of the tree, growling and hissing as it lost his trail. It sniffed the air and turned in the direction of Danny's hiding place. He clasped his hands over his hands, trying to hide the sounds of his heavy panting.

The ghost began slinking around the tree, the teen scooting around the other direction, doing his best to keep the tree between himself and the line of sight of the ghost. Satisfied that it had checked all around the tree, it snorted and charged away. Danny stayed hidden for several more moments as he heard the ghost plow through the trees and roots. He got to his feet and backed away, keeping his eyes in the direction the creature had gone. He spun around to run and came face to face with the creature.

Danny yelped and managed to dodge as it snapped its' jaws viciously at his face. He ducked down between its' leg, barely avoiding being slashed in two by its' long claws. The ghost growled in frustration and snaked its' long prehensile tail beneath it to wrap around Danny's leg. It yanked him out, twirled him several times and flung him against a far tree.

The teen slid to the ground, slightly disoriented. He looked up just in time to see the zombie ghost charging toward him, jaws agape to tear his head off. The teen rolled to the side just before impact; the creature jamming its' snout deep into the wood of the tree. Danny took the opportunity while the ghost was trapped; he stumbled to his feet and ran toward an especially dark end of the jungle, toward a deep thicket of dense roots between tightly packed trees, hopefully dense enough that the ghost couldn't follow.

The beast shrieked in frustration as its' prey was escaping. It jerked its' head violently and broke free of the bark, snapping and toppling the tree. Danny had just made it into the undergrowth and turned just as a clawed hand slashed at him, cutting three gashes in his left side, causing him to spin and fall backwards. He groaned in pain, but somehow managed to get to his feet and negotiate his way through the thick roots. The ghost ferociously ripped and tore at the trees and roots, but it was too big to get through the opening.

Danny didn't look back as he heard the angry cries and growls coming from behind him, his current focus was on putting as much distance as he could between him and the ghost. Fortunately, he was just small enough to fit through the tightly woven roots and branches, tearing his clothing and scraping his skin as he headed deeper and deeper into the darkness.

He gripped his side in pain, doing his best to plow forward. He had to survive; Danny's thoughts now focused on escaping the jungle, escaping the ghost zone, and hopefully making it to the school.

…

The scruffy teen paced back and forth anxiously backstage as the show was about to begin. Mr. Lancer, Ms. Peegrie, the Principal, and a man from the District Administration sat at the judge table. Mr. Lancer was attempting a polite conversation with the man, but he was not interested in whatever the vice principal had to say. Henry shuddered as she saw the crowd gathering in their seats; it grew with every passing minute.

Sam and Tucker had showed up early, they were already in their seats and had reserved a seat next to them for Danny, but her boyfriend was nowhere to be seen.

"Please hurry Danny," she whispered to herself.

…

For the last fifteen minutes, Danny had been trying to unlock the collar that suppressed his ghost powers. He found the keyhole and was attempting to pick the lock with a thin twig. The teen had lost the zombie ghost almost half an hour ago and could still hear its' shrieks of frustration echoing throughout the jungle. Danny was safe, for the moment.

The twig Danny was using finally snapped and a splinter broke off in the keyhole.

"Crap in a hat!" he shouted and threw what little he had left of the twig in his hand, crossed his arms and pouted as he tried to figure out another way of getting the device off.

He then realized how much Henry had rubbed off on him. His thoughts drifted back to her and the talent show and he hoped that she was ok. The last thing he wanted to do was disappoint her again; what kind of boyfriend was he if he couldn't even make it to something so important? Danny sighed and thought about how terrified she must have been, facing the entire school and trying not to screw up. He remembered the promise that he would make it even if both his legs were broken, and yet his legs were currently still intact.

A shuffling in the leaves near by caught Danny's attention. He snapped out of his thoughts and listened intently. The sound came again, this time much closer. Danny swiftly reached down and grabbed a large branch and held it like a bat, ready for whatever attack came. The teen backed away slowly from the sound, ready for fight or flight.

Suddenly, a pair of strong hands wrapped around Danny, one around his middle, pinning his arms down, and the other clasped over his mouth as he was dragged backward toward the darkness. He struggled hard until he heard the voice.

"Stop struggling ghost child, unless you want it to catch us both," Skulker whispered quietly.

Which would be worst? Being caught by the zombie ghost and torn to shreds or being caught by Skulker and skinned? Danny started to struggle again then stopped when he thought of something, _Wait, catch us both?_

There was a loud crash and a roar as the ghost came crashing through the clearing, sniffing the ground for the scent of the ghost boy. They were hidden in the shadows of roots, but for how long? Skulker swiftly and skillfully grabbed a strange cube at his belt and tossed it behind a nearby tree. It came to life and created a hologram of Danny, battered and beat up. The creature mistook the hologram Danny for the real Danny and chased after it.

"That won't keep it occupied for long," Skulker whispered and released the teen, motioning for him to follow, "This way, there's a secret tunnel down here that leads to the edge of my world."

Danny was hesitant at first, thinking again about which fate would be worse. Skulker was the one who kidnapped him in the first place, so why would help him now?

The mechanical ghost looked back, "Well, are you coming? Or would you rather wait there and let that thing take you?"

The teen swallowed and followed Skulker to the base of an odd looking tree. Skulker peeled away a sheet of bark to reveal a keypad, to which he quickly entered a numerical password. A door hidden in the grains of the bark slowly swung open, the mechanical ghost replaced the small sheet of bark over the keypad, making it invisible once again. He stepped inside and waited for Danny to follow. Danny hesitated one more time, then entered the secret passage behind the other ghost. The door slowly closed behind them, the edges seemed to melt together and hide the door.

The secret passage was more like the tunnels of a catacomb, cobwebs and old moss covered the walls, the skittering of small animals could be heard faintly. It gave Danny the creeps; he almost expected skeletons to jump out and start chasing him. He wrapped his arms securely around himself as it suddenly became much colder.

He heard the sound of scrapping metal as Skulker unsheathed a knife, grabbed the teen's hair and roughly jerked his head back, "Hold still," and brought the blade to Danny's throat.

The raven-haired teen's thoughts immediately went into a panic as he thought of that knife slitting his throat but the blow never came, but instead he heard the sound of metal scrapping again, this time from the blade fiddling with the keyhole and prying the lock open, and the collar fell to the ground. Skulker released him and he rubbed his sore neck, coughing slightly. Skulker sheathed the knife and began down a tunnel on the left.

"Wait!" Danny held up his hand, "Where are we going?"

Skulker didn't turn around, "I'm leading you to the edge of my world so you can escape from here."

Danny blinked a few times in confusion, "But weren't you the one who brought me here in the first place? And why did you save me from that zombie ghost?"

The mechanical ghost turned and grabbed the front of his shirt and forced him to walk, "If we don't keep moving then you won't be saved, come on," they walked in silence for several minutes as Skulker lead them through the tunnels, then he spoke again, "Yes, I was the one who captured you in the first place, but it wasn't of my own free will, it forced me to."

"It? That zombie ghost?" Danny furrowed his eyebrows, "What exactly is it? Why and how could it 'force' you?" Danny grabbed Skulker's arm, "I need you to tell me what that thing is and why it keeps attacking me and Henry."

Skulker took a deep breath, as though preparing for a long story, "It's an ancient demon that has existed since the beginning of the ghost zone. Every two hundred years, it awakens from a deep hibernation and preys upon the fear, pain, suffering, and anguish of souls for twenty years—ghosts and humans alike—before it returns to its' slumber. It came for me last night, I tried to fight it off, but it's too powerful. In exchange for my life, I agreed to capture you for it to devour. But I don't want to turn you over to it; I don't want it taking my prey away before I have the change to mount your head on my wall. And I don't know who this Henry is, but if it's after him, then it must find him particularly tasty."

Danny scowled at him, "Henry is a girl," but decided against telling his enemy she was his girlfriend, he was still protecting her from ghosts who might use her to get to him.

"Well then, it must find _her_ particularly tasty," Skulker stopped where the tunnel forked off in two directions, "Now, which way was it again?" the larger ghost whispered to himself and scratched his chin.

The ghost teen became very nervous and anxious when he decided to ask another question pressing on his mind, "Skulker, are ghosts spirits of the dead?"

The taller ghost paused, "Yes."

"So," Danny pressed on, "Does that mean … you're dead?"

He didn't reply, but that was enough of an answer.

"How did you die?"

Skulker didn't have the chance to answer as the cavern walls shook as the tunnel far behind them caved in beneath the tearing claws of the zombie ghost. It let out the loud angry shriek as it caught their scent. They heard it crash down the tunnel awkwardly, being too large to move properly in the tight space. There wasn't really much time to figure out which was the right direction, so they just chose a tunnel and ran down it as fast as they could.

Danny had been trying his hardest to go ghost, but it wasn't working. There was probably still some side effects from the collar. The ghost was catching up quickly, hot on their heels as they ran for their lives. Skulker grabbed Danny's arm as he veered into a crack in the wall. It was just large enough for the pair to squeeze into, but small enough that the creature couldn't fit. It rammed against the wall angrily as it tried to tear the wall down.

Skulker led them swiftly down the narrow tunnel until they came to a dead end, "Quick! Help me move these rocks."

They tore down boulder after boulder as they heard the ghost continue to struggle and destroy the only thing keeping it from its' prey. Soon Danny saw a beam of light through the gaps of the rocks—they were almost free! This spurred them on to dig faster, widening the space; Danny could hear rushing water on the other side. Skulker kicked down the last of the debris to reveal they were behind a waterfall.

The wall behind them finally caved in, allowing the creature to continue chasing them. Skulker grabbed Danny by the collar of his shirt, "Get going ghost child," and threw him hard through the rushing water.

In his panicked state, Danny's body finally forced itself into ghost mode just in time to save him from falling into the rapids. He didn't have any time to waste, he had to get to the human world, and he knew exactly how far away Skulker's world was from the Fenton Portal. Danny sped off as fast as he could, leaving Skulker to stand against the creature.

Skulker unsheathed a pair of long blades and prepared himself for battle, knowing he likely would not survive his encounter with the demon again, but he wouldn't go down without a fight.

…

Danny burst through the doors of the ghost portal with such speed he crashed into the shelves and beakers on the other side of the room. He was dazed slightly, but had the presence of mind to lock the ghost portal, hoping that would hold up against the zombie ghost.

Panting heavily, he glanced up at the clock on the wall; it was almost nine! Without another thought, he sped off toward Casper High. All he could do was hope he wasn't too late.

…

The second to last student was just finishing up his performance, Henry paced back and forth as she prepared herself for her own performance. She was the last student left, and she was getting more and more anxious by the second. Henry did get some slight satisfaction when the man from the District Administration, who had been introduced earlier as Mr. Robert Hansen, was very unimpressed with Paulina's dance routine, calling her 'an average cheerleader that has little to no charisma'. Now the scruffy teen just had to outshine Paulina, but this man was so cocky and arrogant, it was almost as if he thought he was Simon Cowell.

"And now, for our final performance of the night," Mr. Lancer announced, "Miss Henrietta Cooper."

Fiddling with her fingers, she walked slowly to the center of the stage, where a microphone and a stand waited. Scattered clapping echoed slightly as the crowd acknowledged her entrance and she adjusted the stand to her height. Henry suddenly wished she had gone to the bathroom before she went on stage, all that water all day long was finally making its way through her system.

Henry stood in front of the microphone and looked up at her teachers and Mr. Hansen, "H-hi, I'm Henrietta Cooper—"

"I gathered that much," Mr. Hansen spoke simply as he looked over her form, "and what will you be performing for us tonight?"

She flinched at the sarcasm in his voice, "Tonight I'm going to sing for you."

"And what will you be singing?" he finally looked up at her.

"I-I will be singing Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera," she scratched the back of her head, "well, I'm gonna try anyway."

"Try?" the man chuckled, "Your lack of confidence is very reassuring."

_And your attitude is very encouraging_, she thought as she tried her best not to glare at the man. Henry shuffled her feet; "I've never done it in front of a large audience."

"Well, anytime you're ready," he leaned back in her chair.

Henry's teachers were smiling up at her, waiting patiently and quietly for her to perform. Mr. Lancer and Ms. Peegrie had heard her perform, so they knew she would do well.

The teen scanned the crowd; she found Sam and Tucker smiling up at her and giving her a thumbs up, but the seat next to them remained empty. Danny wasn't there. He had broken the biggest promise he made to her. Henry's heart sank, how was she going to do this without him there? How could he do this to her again?

"Come on Henry," Sam whispered, "you can do it."

It was too late to turn back now; she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, and gave the sound technician the thumbs up to play the tape she'd given him. Soft violin music started up, Henry leaned in toward the microphone and opened her mouth; nothing came out and the music played without her. She turned back to the sound technician and motioned for him to start the music over. He rewound the tape and played it again. Henry tried again, this time only a squeak came out and the music continued, causing the audience to laugh. Sam and Tucker glared at the students around them, then looked back up at their friend, trying to give some encouragement.

"Is that really your talent?" Mr. Hansen raised an eyebrow.

Henry looked down at her hands, trying her best not to cry as people continued to laugh. It was a nightmare; making a fool of herself and no one there to rescue her. She glanced back up and noticed something floating near the ceiling, or rather someone. It was Danny, in his ghost form, hovering high above the crowd near the back so no one could see him, except for Henry. He waved down to her, smiling with encouragement.

"Well, if that's all you can do," the man sighed, "then I think I've personally seen enough—"

"No wait!" she said almost a bit too quickly and loudly, "I'm ready now, I can do it now," she shook out her arms to loosen up, "one more time, I've got this."

"Are you sure?" he raised his eyebrow.

"Yep, let's go," she pounded a fist in her palm in determination.

Mr. Lancer spoke up, "Well, I think we should let her have another try."

"Me too!" Ms. Peegrie raised her hand.

Mr. Hansen glanced at the other teachers, then back up at Henry, "Fine, one more try, that's it."

"You got it!" Henry chirped with confidence, giving the sound technician another thumbs up.

The crowd laughed again, believing she was just making an idiot out of herself. Henry was full of confidence now; Danny had finally showed up, he was the real person she wanted to sing for, not her meaningless school peers. The music started up one final time; Henry closed her eyes and breathed deep.

…

_Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation,_

_Darkness stirs, and wakes imagination,_

_Silently the senses abandon their defenses._

…

The audience fell completely silent when she started singing. Danny almost choked on his own saliva when he heard her; it was much better than he'd ever expected, he didn't even know she could sing like that. Sam and Tucker smiled in satisfaction; they knew she was good, they heard her tryout, and it was totally worth it to see the look on peoples' faces. At this point, even Mr. Hansen was stunned; Mr. Lancer and Ms. Peegrie were quite satisfied with his expression. Henry had the entire audience captivated, and she knew it. She looked back up at Danny. He was staring at her, still completely and utterly shocked. She smiled to herself and continued, making slow gentle movements with her hands and arms as if to guide the audience with the song.

…

_Slowly, gently, night unfurls its' splendor,_

_Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender._

_Turn your face away from the garish light of day,_

_Turn your thoughts away from cold unfeeling light._

_And listen to the music of the night._

…

_Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams,_

_Purge your thoughts of the life you knew before._

_Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar,_

_And you'll live as you've never lived before._

…

_Softly, deftly, music shall caress you,_

_Hear it, feel it, secretly possess you._

_Open up your mind, let you fantasies unwind,_

_In this darkness, which you know you cannot fight._

_The darkness of the music of the night._

…

_Let your mind start a journey to a strange new world,_

_Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before._

_Let your soul take you where you long to be._

…

Henry held that high note for a full ten seconds, impressively long all things considering, then paused to bring in more suspense and emotion before continuing.

…

_Only then can you belong to me._

…

_Floating, falling, sweet intoxication._

_Touch me, trust me, savor each sensation._

_Let the dream begin, let your darker side give in,_

_To the power of the music that I write._

_The power of the music of the night._

…

As she held that note, the audience stood up and applauded, whistling and clapping loudly. Danny, Sam and Tucker applauded the loudest, cheering her on for her performance. Henry looked up at Danny and smiled, then sang the last bit as if singing directly to him.

…

_You alone can make my song take flight,_

_Help me make the music of the night._

…

Danny obviously realized that final line was for him, he blushed bright red. The audience continued to cheer, whistle and clap as Henry took a bow and started to walk offstage, a spring in her step and a great big smile of satisfaction plastered across her face.

"Hold it right there, young lady!" Mr. Hansen stood up, both palms flat on the table.

Henry froze and slowly looked back toward him, what did she do wrong? He motioned for her to return to the center of the stage and to the microphone. The scruffy teen slowly walked back and stared at him in startled confusion.

He continued to stare at her, scratching his chin and studying her with stern eyes, "That was incredible, if I hadn't heard the instrumental soundtrack when you messed up those first times and there was no singing, I would've thought you were lip syncing. I mean, it was almost as if a young Sarah Brightman just jumped onstage. I certainly didn't expect that from someone as dirty and mangy as you, you didn't even think to dress nicer for this?"

The redhead glared at him, "These are the only clothes I own, I have to wash them every day just to go to school. So no, I didn't think to dress nicer."

_Please don't be sarcastic now_, Danny pleaded mentally. Admittedly, this guy was a total jerk, but being rude back to him certainly wouldn't earn her any points. There was a murmuring among the crowd after she said that, as if they didn't know that was why she wore the same thing every day.

Mr. Hansen ignored her tone and thought for a moment, "Well, I'd dare to venture that if a record studio heard that performance, they'd offer you a contract on the spot. In fact, I'd be willing to bet my career on that."

She looked wide-eyed at him as crowd began to murmur again, "That's very kind of you, but I don't want any of that."

"Why not?" he was astonished, "You could have a better life, you'd be famous, live in a nice house, actually have clothes and be rich, why would you turn all that down?"

Henry dawned a very serious expression and her tone changed, "Because I would have to leave my friends, my school, and everything I already have, and I do not want to lose any of that. I did not enter this competition for fame, I entered to prove that I could do it."

"You'd seriously give up a career like that for your friends?" the man asked.

Henry looked out to Sam and Tucker in the audience, then up at Danny and smiled, "Yes."

Mr. Hansen sat back down, still studying her. Suddenly, the teen's eyes went wide and she crossed her legs, "I'll listen to whatever else you have to say, but can I please go to the bathroom first?"

The audience laughed, Henry didn't wait for a response from the man before she ran off stage to find the nearest bathroom, and she didn't care if it was the men's or ladies' room.

…

Danny had escaped to the hallway to change back into his human form and snuck back into the auditorium. The crowd was restless and several had gotten up to stretch their legs while their teachers finished tallying votes for the winner. Danny got to his empty seat next to Sam and Tucker, scaring them in the process.

"Dude! You missed it!" Tucker practically shouted, "Henry is gonna be so pissed!"

"No I didn't," he smiled, "I had the best seat in the house," and pointed toward the ceiling.

Sam knew he had been there the moment Henry perked up on stage, she knew her friend would be too afraid to perform without him, "So, what did you think? Pretty awesome huh?"

"Pretty awesome doesn't begin to describe it!" he said in excitement, "But now I really feel like a jerk for missing it before."

"I'm sure she forgives you, as long as you made it to this one," Sam patted his shoulder, she then notice how beat up he was and how torn his clothes were, "What happened to you? Get in another fight with that ghost?"

"Yeah, found out some pretty freaky stuff about it too," he sighed, "but I'd rather not talk about it right now, this is a bit more important at the moment."

The contestants were ushered back on stage as the judges presented the awards. The audience sat back down and grew quiet in anticipation. Henry, Paulina, and all the rest of the participants lined up on stage

Mr. Lancer stood, three trophies sat on the judge table, "And now the moment we've all been waiting for, time to give out the awards," he picked up the smallest trophy, "Third place goes to Miss Courtney Faye for her dancing dog routine."

The shy blonde with a golden retriever dog stepped forward to accept the trophy. The dog barked happily, as if it knew they did a good job.

"Second place," he picked up the slightly bigger trophy, "goes to Mr. Adam Fitzgerald for his piano solo."

A young man with clean-cut hair and a suit stepped forward and gratefully took the award. The crowd fell silent in anticipation and the next award. Mr. Lancer picked up the final trophy, which stood just over two feet tall, and cleared his throat.

"And the winner, and the student moving on to the District Talent show to represent Casper High is," he paused to build suspense, though everyone already knew who won, "Miss Henrietta Cooper and her vocal performance!"

The crowd went wild, giving her another standing ovation. Henry's eyes widened and she almost fainted, but the two contestants on either side of her managed to catch her before she hit the floor. She came back to her senses, stood up and shyly stepped forward. Henry used her long sleeve to wipe tears from her eyes as she accepted the trophy, the proof that she beat Paulina. The look on Paulina's face was beyond priceless; she hadn't even placed. Although there would likely be repercussions about this with the other cheerleaders, it was totally worth it.

After the awards were handed out and a brief speech about how wonderfully all the contestants performed, the crowd began to disperse to go home and start their weekend. Danny tried to fight the crowd to get up to the stage and congratulate his girlfriend, but it proved to be a difficult task as everyone was leaving and pushing toward the doors away from the stage. After several minutes of struggling against the crowd, he finally made it to the stage and searched for Henry, but couldn't find her anywhere.

"Mr. Lancer?" Danny walked up to his teacher when he saw him, "Where's Henry?"

"Oh, Miss Cooper went home right after the awards were handed out, were you waiting for her?"

"Yeah, which way did she go?"

"She went out the back door, she said she didn't want to make a scene by going through the front—"

Danny didn't wait for his teacher to finish and ran backstage toward the exit. He burst open the door, only to be met with a sheet of pouring rain, looks like the storm finally hit. Henry was nowhere to be seen, probably at least halfway home if she had left as early as Mr. Lancer said she had. The rain hitting the raven-haired teen in the face, puddles splashing under his feet, he ran in the direction he knew she was mostly likely taking home.

After several blocks, Danny soon spotted the yellow hoodie in the distance, "Henry!" he shouted toward her.

The figure stopped, turned around and saw him coming. Henry was soaking wet from the downpour, her hair drooping in her face and plastered against her head, the large trophy tucked under one arm and the other hand stuffed into her pocket. There was genuine look of shock on her face, as if she hadn't expected him to know she had escaped the crowd, let alone follow her in the rain. She dropped the metal award and ran toward her beloved badger and they embraced.

Henry buried her face against Danny's shirt to hide her tears, "Thank you for making it in time."

"Better late than never," the teen ghost lightly joked.

The redhead kept her face against his chest, "What took you so long?"

Danny paused, searching for the right words, "I got caught up in trouble."

She smiled and quietly laughed, "The life of a super hero," she finally looked up at him, "thank you for being my hero when I needed it the most."

He brushed her hair from her face and gave a loving kiss.

…

End Chapter 12

…

Hope you guys thought it was worth it, sorry again if it seemed rushed. Read and review please! :D

**I was inspired by Sarah Brightman' voice, but the lyrics are from a Broadway sheet music I have.


	13. The Mall

Man, I had to push that last chapter out like giving birth to a 16 lb. baby! x.x (no reference to the actual 16 lb. that was recently born) I felt like all my fans lost faith in me, or the last chapter just wasn't that good. Either way, it's time to keep the plot moving. Read and Review, tell your friends!

Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright to Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon do, please don't sue me.

…

Chapter 13: The Mall

…

It was time for the weekend, good thing too because it was a fairly stressful week, and especially after yesterday. The Casper High Talent Show was over, lifting some of the stress off one particular girl. Now was a time to relax with her friends and her boyfriend. She was more than happy to not do any homework this weekend, not even read any books, just relax.

So what were they going to do this fine Saturday?

Danny's cell phone rang bright and early the next morning. Well, not that early, around nine am, but still early for the weekend. He sleepily rolled over and checked the caller id, it read: 'Pumpkin-Head'. As a joke after they toyed with each other's nicknames, the raven-haired teen thought it would be funny to enter that as Henry's caller id, and he knew if she had caller id, she'd likely do the same for him.

"Hello?" he said with a yawn.

"Hi Little Badger!" came the familiar cheerful voice on the other end, "How are you today?"

_Yup, she'd totally do that_, Danny sat up rubbing his eyes, "Kinda tired, had quite a long day yesterday."

Last night after the talent show, Henry had noticed how beaten up he was and his torn clothes and cuts. Danny just told her he'd gotten in a bad fight with a ghost, but didn't tell her it was the zombie ghost again; he didn't want to worry her. The little redhead felt awful after how she had treated him yesterday, but the ghost boy brushed it off and told her the fight wasn't a big deal, though it was.

"Aww, I'm sorry baby, do you need to stay in bed and rest today?"

"No, I'm fine," he sat up and stretched, "I'm awake now, no sense in going back to sleep. And I can't wait to see you," he added with a smile.

There was a giggle on the other end, "You're too sweet, but that's what I called to talk to you about."

"Oh? What's up?" he held the phone to his ear with his shoulder as he began to change out of pajamas.

"Well, Sam, Tucker and I wanna meet up at the mall to hang out there for a while."

Danny stopped for a moment, "Uh, I thought you didn't like the mall, you said there were too many people for you to think, or something along those lines."

"I know, but I need to stop being a little hermit and get out more, and the mall is the best place to go for that," there was a loud crash on the other end, "Ow! Crap in a hat!"

"What happened?" Danny sounded concerned.

"I fell down the stairs again, you know me, clumsy as a bull in a china shop."

"Haha, that's true," the raven-haired teen's voice dropped to a serious tone, "You don't have to go out to the mall if you don't want, I'm perfectly fine if you wanna find something else to—"

"Nope," she cut him off, "we both need this today. Just hurry up and we'll meet on the corner, love you baby!" there was a click on the other end before Danny could respond.

Danny looked at his phone and furrowed his brow; if Henry was willing to do stuff he liked and go places he wanted to, then he'd have to make it up to her.

…

More surprising still, when Danny made it to the street corner to meet up with Henry, she was leaning against the fence, no book in her hands to read, nor headphones in her ears. _Ok, now I'm really concerned_, the teen boy thought to himself as he stepped forward.

The redhead saw him coming, "Hi baby!" she squealed in excitement and rushed forward to give him a great big hug.

Danny fell to the ground from her momentum, "Oof! It's good to see you too."

Henry sat straddling his stomach, "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," Danny said with embarrassment of her straddling him like that.

"Ok!" she jumped up, grabbed his hand, and started dragging him down the sidewalk in the direction of the mall.

Henry's over enthusiasm was really cause for concern, "Uh, are you ok?"

"Hm? Oh, just relieved about the talent show being over," she then decided to change the subject, "So, let's get to the mall, Sam and I have something special planned."

"What planned?"

Henry grinned again, showing the cute little gap in her teeth, "You'll see." A few moments later, she released his hand and started running, "Race ya!"

Danny laughed, turned into his ghost form and sped after her.

…

The pair met up with Sam and Tucker at the mall entrance, their scooters parked and chained to a bike rack. Sam and Tucker definitely noticed Henry's overly cheerful mood, but decided against asking questions after seeing Danny's face.

"So, what're we doing today?" Tucker asked with lack of amusement.

Henry and Sam exchanged mischievous looks before Sam spoke, "Today is a girl's day out."

Danny raised an eyebrow; "So, uh, why are we here?" motioning toward Tucker.

"Well," Henry started, "I've noticed that Tucker has been jealous that you're spending more time with me and less time with him. And since I personally don't wanna take all your attention, Sam and I thought it would be a good idea for us to go do 'girl things' while you two hang out."

"I am not jealous!" Tucker protested.

The redhead folded her arms and raised an eyebrow, "You're too easy to read, and I figured that out a while ago."

He was about to say something else in defense, but he knew she was right.

"So, what are we gonna do?" Danny asked.

Henry gave him a kiss on the cheek, "Whatever you guys wanna do," she grabbed Sam's hand and started to lead her away, "See you guys later, we'll meet up at the food court around one, have fun!"

The two boys watched the girls wander off somewhere into the mall, then turned to each other, "So … what do you wanna do?" Tucker finally asked.

"I dunno," Danny shrugged, "whatchu wanna do?"

Tucker shrugged as well, "I dunno, whatchu wanna do?"

Danny pointed and laughed, " 'ey now don't start tha' again!"

The techno geek raised an eyebrow in confusion, so Danny elaborated, "Henry and I watched '_Jungle Book_' one night while babysitting the boys."

Tucker scowled, "Yeah, you guys _do_ need to spend a little time apart," he walked off, "Let's just wander around and see if we can find something to do for the next couple hours."

…

"So, what're we doing today Sam?" Henry asked as they went deeper into the mall, this time the Goth leading the way.

"Well, I figured we could go clothes shopping, you need more to wear than just that," she motioned toward Henry's hoodie and jeans.

"Hey!" she grabbed the front of her hoodie defensively, "I like my clothes. Plus I don't have any money to buy clothes."

Sam smiled, "I can buy you some, I don't mind. It's not like I'm hurting for money or anything."

The redhead stopped, "I don't want to take charity, I'd rather work hard to earn what I have."

"You basically announced to the whole school last night that you don't even have any other clothes, so I figured you could use some."

"Yeah, not really the best move," the scruffy teen bowed her head.

Sam thought for a bit, "Maybe you could come to my house and help out with stuff, like cleaning or anything, or even homework, and buying you clothes can be payment."

Henry thought for a moment, "Ok, I guess that'll do."

"Or you could even think of it as birthday shopping," Sam added.

"I'd rather not," Henry flinched at the thought.

"Or a treat for winning the talent show?"

"I guess so," Henry twiddled her fingers.

"This looks like a good place to start," Sam dragged her toward a gothic looking outlet reading 'Hot Topic'.

…

Danny and Tucker were having trouble deciding where they wanted to go, and how they were going to spend the next few hours. Not much for boys other than kiosks with Pokémon cards and such. There was a Game Stop they visited for a while, but most of the games were either out of date or the popular ones were sold out.

"We could try Brookstone for a while," Danny suggested, "They have the coolest stuff there."

"Yeah, but it's all way expensive," Tucker raised an eyebrow.

They walked in silence.

"Man, as weird as it sounds, I wish a ghost would show up right now," Danny sighed and slumped his shoulders, "at least that would be something to do."

Tucker stuck his hands in his pockets, "Did you even bring the thermos?"

"No, I didn't think to grab it before I left my house to pickup Henry."

"Seriously dude!" Tucker exclaimed, "Is Henry all you think about? This is supposed to be a day for us to hang out _without_ the girls."

"Uh, that's the first time even mentioned her," Danny looked up at him, "and Henry is a big part of my life now, so of course I'm gonna be thinking about her."

There was an awkward silence between them before Tucker changed the subject, "We could ditch the mall and go ghost hunting for a while."

"But we're supposed to meet back up with Sam and Henry later. And what about the thermos?"

"Dude," Tucker glanced down at his watch, "You can fly to your house in less than five minutes and get the thermos. And it's not even eleven, we have more than two hours, and I'll set an alarm on my PDA."

The raven-haired teen thought for a while, then relented, "All right, but I don't wanna be late again. I'm tired of keeping Henry waiting all the time because of ghosts."

"There you go again!" Tucker threw his hands in the air.

Danny glared but said nothing, then looked up and saw the 'Fanzz' store, "Hold on! I wanna grab something from here really quick."

…

Today was an off day for ghost hunting; it was like the ghosts were taking a weekend vacation or something. So far, Danny and Tucker tracked down and captured a grand total of four ghosts, and they were just the weak ones he'd fought hundreds of times before, including the ferocious Box Ghost. But still, four less ghosts on the streets causing mayhem.

Tucker's PDA started beeping and he sighed, "Time to call it quits dude, if we wanna make it back to the mall in time."

"Yeah," Danny groaned at the disappointing day, before his ghost sense went off, "but it looks like there's one more around here somewhere."

The ghost boy saw a missile rocketing toward him and barely had time to duck out of the way. He looked around and saw Skulker floating not far from him, but he somehow seemed different.

Danny frowned, "Well, looks like our little truce yesterday is over."

Skulker said nothing, but charged toward the ghost boy, unsheathing a pair of long blades. He expertly slashed them like a samurai, Danny just managing to avoid them. The mechanical ghost delivered a roundhouse kick to Danny's chest, knocking him to a brick wall. He didn't give the white-haired teen time to recover before he dove to plunge a sword through him. Danny turned intangible and slipped through the wall behind him; the blade stabbed the wall and jammed between the bricks.

"Ok then," Danny growled under his breath, "Either Skulker managed to suddenly become stronger overnight or I'm just being soft. Either way," he charged an ectoplasmic blast in his hand, "He's still going d—"

A large hand burst through the wall, smashing through the bricks and grabbed him around his face. Danny yelped in surprise as he was dragged back through the wall. Skulker readied his blade one more time, but then a PDA beeped on his arm, the same PDA that forced him to constantly do research on the Purple-Backed Gorilla.

"Ha!" Danny mocked, "Looks like it's time for you to go!"

But the ghost had other plans; he released Danny, torn off his own arm and threw it to the ground with a loud thud, effectively cutting off the PDA from his circuits and from forcing him to leave the battle. But he didn't have the same cocky demeanor he usually had when he thwarted the teen's plans.

"Ok" Danny backed away quickly, "that isn't like Skulker at all."

Skulker punched Danny square in the jaw with his remaining fist, then grabbed his ankle before the force knocked him too far back, pulled him back and kneed him in the stomach. Danny coughed and gripped his stomach, looking up just in time to see a blade swinging toward his face. He dodged to the side, minus a few hairs cut from the sword.

"Tucker!" the teen ghost called, "A little help here!"

The techno geek pried the other sword from Skulker's discarded arm, "Here! Catch!"

Danny caught it and held it up in time to block another swing from the mechanical ghost. The two ghosts pressed hard against each other's sword, Skulker trying to force Danny backward while Danny trying to keep him at bay. He had had enough; the ghost boy powered up another strong ectoplasmic blast and fired it at his opponent's chest. It was strong enough to force Skulker back against a power generator. It delivered a powerful charge to the mechanical suit, shorting it out and causing the ghost to collapse. The suit's helmet came rolling off, revealing no tiny ghost Skulker; the suit was hollow.

"Uh, what the heck just happened?" Danny stared down at the empty suit, "Was that thing just moving on its' own?"

Tucker came running around the corner and saw the empty suit on the ground, "Dude, did you see where Skulker went?" he asked as he readied the thermos.

"He never came out," Danny said in confusion, "he was never in there."

"What?" Tucker studied the mechanical body, "Maybe it was remote controlled from somewhere."

_Or someone_, the white-haired teen thought to himself.

There was another beep from Tucker's PDA, "Dude! Time to go!" and jumped onto his scooter.

"Right!" and Danny sped off ahead.

…

Henry and Sam carried several large bags of clothing and whatnot. Normally Sam wasn't one to just go off on a shopping spree, but Henry really deserved it. They had hit 'Hot Topic', 'Dillards', and 'Vans'. The redhead felt bad that her friend was spending so much money on her, but after Sam told her Danny would love her new outfit she was sporting, she relented to wear it to meet up with the boys, though she felt a bit out of place from her normal attire.

They passed by a kiosk full of stuffed animals; one in particular caught the scruffy teen's eye. She dropped her bags in shocked amusement and picked up the adorable toy, "Sam! Can I get this for Danny? Please please please? I'll scrub every toilet in your house and even whatever calcium and lime buildup on any shower faucets! Puh-lease?"

Her friend looked at the stuffed animal and laughed, "I guess if you really want to, I dunno if he'll like a toy like that though. He usually likes more guy stuff."

"Oh trust me," Henry hugged it tight, "he'll _love_ it!"

…

The boys made it back to the mall, panting from running so fast to get to the food court in time. Danny took out his cell phone to check the time; it read 1:10. They were late! When they finally made it to the food court, the girls were nowhere to be seen.

_That's odd_, Danny thought, _usually Henry is either right on time or even early_.

"Well, since we beat them here," Tucker spoke up, "why don't we get something to eat? I'm starving!"

Danny was hungry too, and it wouldn't take long to just get a burger and some fries. They bought their food and sat down at a table to wait for their friends.

"So," Tucker said through a mouthful of fries, "what do you think was going on with Skulker?"

Danny was about to take a bite of his burger when the sudden question startled him, "Uh, about the suit being empty?"

"Yeah, I've never seen him do that before, have you?"

"No," Danny groaned, "but I have a feeling it has to do with kidnapped me yesterday."

Tucker swallowed his fries, "Is that why you were late last night?"

"Yeah, he kidnapped me and took me to his world and," Danny paused, "and that zombie ghost was there too."

The techno geek almost choked on another mouthful of food, "What? Is it working with Skulker now?"

The raven-haired teen picked up his burger again, "Not exactly, I don't know all the details, but I'll tell you what Skulker told—"

"Hi guys!" they heard Henry pipe up, "Sorry we're late."

"Oh that's ok—" Danny's jaw dropped and he dropped his burger back onto his tray.

Henry realized he was staring at her, "Oh, uh, Sam got me new clothes," she scratched the back of her head shyly, still holding bags in her hands, "she said you'd like them."

The scruffy teen didn't look quite so scruffy anymore. She wasn't wearing her yellow hoodie and baggy jeans. Instead, she now sported a black T-shirt with the 'Ghostbusters' logo on the front, a red and black striped long sleeved shirt underneath as well as a white sleeveless hoodie over top. She had skin-tight Tripp pants and knee high black and white converses. Sam had even done her makeup, with dark eyeliner to emphasize her eyes. Henry wasn't fond of the makeup, but Sam convinced her Danny would like it so she tolerated it.

"Smokin'!" Tucker exclaimed with a thumbs up.

Sam laughed, put a finger under Danny's chin, and closed his mouth, "See? Told you he'd like it."

"Yeah," Henry shyly tried to cover herself with her hands and looked around, "but I feel like everyone is staring at me."

"That's because you're showing individuality," the Goth folded her arms in smug satisfaction, "Not everyone wears those sort of clothes, or at least as one outfit."

Danny finally shook himself from his daze, "Y-yeah, you look good."

The redhead blushed, "Thanks, it'll take time getting used to wearing clothes that actually fit."

"Oh, speaking of which," Danny remembered what he'd bought and pulled out a rolled up shirt he'd stuffed into his pocket, "I got this for you, I hope it's the right size."

Curiously, the redhead took the fabric and unrolled it. She studied it for a bit then squealed in excitement, "A Broncos shirt! How did you know I liked Tim Tebow?"

"Haha, I didn't really," Danny scratched the back of his head, "I just guessed."

It was a navy blue shirt, trimmed with orange and had the number '15' on the back.

"Yay! Thank you Danny!" she hugged him and gave him a great big kiss, leaving a lipstick print on his cheek, "I'll have to wear it if I ever see Vlad again, he will be sooooo~ mad!" she added deviously.

"I didn't know you liked football," Tucker said and pointed at the shirt.

"There's still a lot you don't know about me," Henry winked and squirmed in excitement, "Oh wait! Sam and I got you a present too!"

Henry reached into one of the many bags and pulled out the present. Danny stared at it in a mixture of bewilderment and amusement; it was a stuffed badger.

…

They sat and chattered and joked all throughout their lunch. Henry picked at Danny's food, but he didn't mind too much, better that she eats something rather than starve. They hadn't realized how long they were there until Tucker pulled out his PDA and started fiddling with it.

"Wow, it's after three already!"

Danny laughed, "Time flies when you're having fun I guess. So what now?"

"I dunno, whatchu wanna do?" Henry rested her chin in her hand.

"I dunno, whatchu wanna do?" Danny replied.

Then the couple pointed at each other and said unison, " 'ey now don't start tha' again!" and laughed.

Tucker growled and stood up, "You guys are so weird!" and stomped off.

Henry blinked, "What did we say?"

"Hold on, I'll be right back," Danny got up to follow Tucker, grabbing the stuffed badger and shoving it into his pocket.

The redhead looked down and fiddled with her fingers, "Maybe we should go, it's still girl's day out and the boys should get to hang out."

Sam raised an eyebrow, "You shouldn't let Tucker get to you. Sometimes he can just be a little selfish is all."

Henry looked up at her friend, "Do you think we're weird?"

The question startled Sam and she searched for the right words, "Well, kinda, but I know couples do weird stuff, it doesn't really bother me. I'm just glad to see you both happy."

"I just wish Tucker felt the same way."

There was a long awkward silence between them before Sam changed the subject, "Why don't we take all this stuff back to your house? It's getting kinda awkward to carry all the bags everywhere."

Henry sat up, "What about Danny and Tucker?"

Sam got out of her seat and picked up her phone, "I'll text them and let them know we're leaving."

"Sounds fine to me," Henry stood up as well, "we might have to hide my new clothes though, Uncle Rege will either think I stole them or that they're offensive."

…

"Tucker! Wait up!" Danny called as he tried to catch up to his friend.

The techno geek finally slowed down and turned around, "What?"

Danny growled, "Why did you have to be so mean? We didn't do anything."

"Because you've changed!" Tucker snapped, "You never used to talk or act like that! Why can't we just hang out like we used to? Do normal guy stuff? And not talk about weird stuff."

"Uh, that's what we've trying to do all day. Do you have a problem with Henry or something?"

"No, I don't really have a problem with her, it's what she's turned you into. Ever since you guys started dating, you keep doing weird stuff and withdrawing from your me and Sam. Can't you guys just take a break or something?"

Danny was getting really irritated, "Seriously, isn't that what we've been trying to do?"

"Yes, we have been _trying_, but," Tucker sighed and slumped his shoulders, "we haven't really been doing much of anything. I mean, sure we went ghost hunting for a while and that was a bust, and I can't think of anything I really want to do here, so what now?"

"Ok, fair enough," Danny was still trying to keep his cool, "So if we go somewhere else, what else do you want to do?"

Tucker was about to answer when they both heard Danny's phone go off, the ghost teen picked it up and checked it; it was a text from Sam.

_Just letting you know, Henry and I are leaving the mall, you guys go ahead and do your own thing for the rest of the day. Have fun!_

Danny sighed and put his phone away, "So, Sam and Henry are gone, so it really is just you and me now."

"Ok," Tucker thought for a bit longer, "Well, you were about to tell me what you found out about that zombie ghost. We could start there."

"All right, that works for me."

…

After hearing the story about Danny being kidnapped by Skulker, being hunted by that ghost, then Skulker helping me, both boys decided to go back to Tucker's house to do some research on the internet. They didn't have much luck.

"Apparently, whatever this thing is, no one knows anything about it," Tucker scratched his chin.

"No one in the human world," Danny furrowed his brow, "Well, the only other option is to find someone in the ghost zone who knows anything about it."

Tucker spun around in his seat, "Dude, do you even know anyone in the ghost zone that isn't your enemy?"

The raven-haired teen thought hard, "The only ghosts I can think of are Frostbite, Clockwork, and maybe Pandora."

"Clockwork will know, he _has_ to know, he's the keeper of time!"

"Yeah, but have you tried talking to Clockwork?" Danny rolled his eyes, "It's like trying to memorize the periodic table of elements or something."

"Well, he would be the best person to ask," Tucker leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head.

Danny glanced at his phone; it read 10:42, "I'd probably better head home, it's getting late."

Tucker raised an eyebrow, "Since when are you worried about being out late?"

"Since I stayed out late last night and was woken up early, I'm pretty tired and I need to go to bed."

"All right dude," Tucker gave him a fist bump, "See you tomorrow?"

Danny paused, trying to decide what to say, "I, uh, was going to do something with Henry."

"Ok, that's cool, have fun," he smiled at his friend.

Danny changed into his ghost form and flew through the wall toward his house. The cool night air felt nice; there was a chill in the air, signaling that fall was near. About halfway home, the ghost boy pulled out his cell phone and dialed Sam's phone.

"Hello?" Sam yawned.

"Oh, uh, did I wake you up Sam?"

"Nope, I was just about to go to bed though, what's up?"

"I was just wondering if Henry was still with you, if I need to take her home."

"She went home a while ago, said she was tired and had to babysit the boys."

"Ok, just checking, did you guys have fun?"

Sam laughed, "I think so, she said she had so much fun today that she wanted to have girl's days more often. What about you guys?"

Danny remembered the brief conversation he and Tucker had at the mall, "Yeah, I think we did," he lied.

"That's good," Danny heard his friend yawn again on the other end, "I think I need to head to bed."

The ghost boy had just reached his house and phased through his wall to his room, "Yeah, me too, it's been a long day."

"All right, good night Danny," Sam said quietly.

"Night Sam," and Danny hung up the phone.

He briefly thought of calling Henry to see if she was ok, but it was too late, and if the phone ringing woke up Uncle Rege, he would be pissed.

"I guess Tucker does have a bit of a point," he muttered to himself as he changed back into his human side, "I _do_ think about Henry a lot." _Is there something wrong with that?_

Danny felt a pressure in his pocket and looked down. The head and front paws of the badger Henry gave him were sticking out of his pants pocket. He carefully pulled it out and studied it with a smile. Danny wasn't necessarily a fan of cute little toys like these, but it's the thought that counts. He knew Henry had the best intentions of getting it for him.

_Cute and cuddly Little Badger_, he thought to himself as he gave it a small hug.

…

End Chapter 13

…

A bit cheesy, but I thought it would be fun to play with Henry's clothing, show Tucker's irritation at his best friend's constantly being with his girlfriend, and another cute boyfriend/girlfriend moment (yes, the stuffed badger is important later on), let me know what you think! Read and Review! Reviews keep me motivated!


	14. Looking for Answers

It's hard to keep myself motivated to keep writing when I get very little feed back from fans, other than "I like it, keep it up!" I would like my fans to give me a bit more feedback on what they liked/disliked about chapters so I know what to look out for in the rest of this story. Sorry, had to get that off my chest, but it is a bit frustrating that I have a lot of watchers but only receive 2-4 reviews a chapter. Please don't take any offense by it.

Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright to Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon do, please don't sue me.

…

Chapter 14: Looking for Answers

…

Danny awoke late the next morning. He found it odd that Henry hadn't called to wake him up like she usually did; oh well, she must have just slept in because she was probably tired. He rolled over realized his cell phone battery had died during the night, so she probably did call but left a voicemail. With a heavy groan, the sleepy teen reach over the edge of the bed, found the cord of his charger, and plugged it in to charge the battery. He then decided while it was charging to take a shower.

Today he hadn't almost fallen asleep in the shower, having slept in and caught a couple extra hours of sleep. Danny returned to his room and opened his phone to see if it had charged enough to at least turn it back on. He opened it up and turned it on speakerphone so he could listen to the voicemail while he dried off and got dressed.

"_Hi Little Badger! I hope you get this message, I guess you must be sleeping in. But anyway, Uncle Rege is home today and wants me to stay home with him and the boys. I asked him if you could come over and he got angry, so we won't be able to hang out today. But you should go ahead and hang out with Sam and Tucker; I bet they'd like a break from me too. Hahaha, I'm kidding, but seriously, go have fun for the rest of the day, if you're worried about me getting attacked, I still have that Specter Deflector you gave me so I should be ok. I'll see you at school tomorrow, love you baby!"_ there was the sound of blowing a kiss on the other end and then a click.

Danny glared at his phone as he pulled his pants on, _I bet Uncle Rege just wants her to stay home and clean_. Well, if she said Uncle Rege didn't want him there, then he didn't want to get Henry in trouble. So, for today, he'd respect her wish and spend time with his friends without her. But what to do …

After much thought, Danny decided to call Tucker to discuss plans. He dialed his friend's number and waited for him to pick up.

"Hello?" there was a lot of noise in the background.

"Hey Tuck, it's Danny, what've you got going on?"

He could hear the noise in the background turn down, probably from his TV or stereo, "Not much, why? Don't you have stuff going on with Henry?"

"She won't be able to make it today. But we can go ahead and hang out if you want."

"Sounds good to me!" his friend seemed to perk up, "So do you have anything you wanna do?"

"Well, there was that thing we were doing last night that I'm wondering about."

There was a pause on the other end, "You mean researching that ghost?"

Danny nodded, even though he knew his friend couldn't see him, "I want some answers."

…

"So tell me again what we're doing," Sam asked as they prepared the Specter Speeder in the lab.

"We're going into the ghost zone and ask Frostbite if he knows anything about this ghost," Danny checked the fuel level, "Skulker told me this ghost has been around for thousands of years, and no one in the human world knows much about it."

Tucker closed the hatch door in the back, "So why Frostbite?"

"He's one of the only ghosts I know that won't attack me besides Pandora and Clockwork."

"Well, if this ghost is thousands of years old, then why not go straight to Clockwork?" Sam checked several knobs on the dashboard.

Danny groaned to himself, "Talking to Clockwork is harder than Chinese Algebra with his riddles and obscurities, I'm gonna keep him as a last resort if I have to."

After loading any needed weapons and Fenton gadgets into the Speeder and making sure everything was in order, they decided to set out, Danny leading the way in his ghost form.

The ghost zone seemed somehow emptier than it normally was, not barren, but there were no small specters floating by between the doors to other ghost's worlds. It gave them the creeps, but they all knew despite all this, it had to be done one way or another. Probably should've investigated sooner, like when they discovered the ghost could escape the Fenton thermos practically at will. It seemed like hours before he saw Frostbite's icy Far Frozen world in the distance. The sight spurred him on and sped off ahead.

"Wait here guys, I'll be right back!" he shouted over his shoulder.

"Danny wait up!" Tucker shouted after him.

The Specter Speeder wasn't as fast as Danny so they couldn't quite catch up, but the ghost teen couldn't wait. He reached the edge of the ice world, but something was wrong, very wrong. It was too quiet; Danny couldn't hear the bustling sounds that usually associated with a full village.

"Frostbite?" Danny called as he cautiously drifted toward the center of the glacier.

He reached the village, but it was eerily quiet. It was completely empty, and looked totally thrashed. Danny ignored the corner of his mind that told him he shouldn't be there, but curiosity drew him in. There were strange tracks half covered in snow, Danny they would lead to whoever was responsible for the destruction, even though he had an inkling suspicion of who it was.

They led to the stadium, where a battle had obviously waged. The imprints of bodies and weapons lay strewn across the ground. No actual bodies, just imprints of fallen warriors, where could they have gone?

There was a strange, green glowing mist that wafted across the ground toward the middle of the stadium, similar to a fog machine, Danny swallowed hard and slowly walked through the mist. It wisped and curled around his feet, the only sound was Danny's footsteps crunching in the snow; a cold wind blew over his shoulders, causing him to shiver.

What appeared to be a large black blob of ectoplasm sat in the center of the mist, it pulsated slightly as if it was some sort of beating heart. Danny swallowed again and reached a trembling hand toward it to feel the surface. Suddenly a pair of yellow glowing eyes shot open to angrily stare back at him, as if to say 'how dare you disturb me'. The ghost boy gasped and stumbled back as he was startled and fell back into the snow. The creature shifted again, its' slimy body starting to look like a deformed bubble of goo. A low growl emanated from inside, veils of ice began to form on the surface. Danny jumped to his feet and prepared for battle, whether it was to blast the bubble to pop it or whatever attack was to come. An icy clawed hand formed and shot toward him to slash at him. He gasped and managed to dodge backward, but was unable to dodge the other icy hand that formed. It slashed three deep gashes in his back and he was knocked to the ground, causing him to shout in pain. He hadn't completely healed from his previous battle, so he wasn't on top of his game. It was quite obvious who the being was: the zombie ghost.

Danny back flipped out of the path of the next blow, the blasted apart the hand with an ectoplasmic blast when it lunged at him. A high-pitched shriek emanated from inside the blob as the hand shattered.

"Who are you?" Danny shouted at it, another blast forming in his hands, "_What_ are you? What do you want?"

It simply laughed darkly as the ice hand reformed. The beast let out another high-pitched shriek, causing the stadium to shake violently. Danny was forced to cover his ears to keep his eardrums from bursting. While he was momentarily distracted, it slashed at him again, knocking him to the ground, then the other hand pinned him down and prepared for the final blow.

A sudden blast from above shattered the hand, causing another painful shriek from the creature. Danny looked up to see Sam and Tucker descending in the Specter Speeder. He kicked off the hand that held him down, and then flew backward out of the way. His friends continued to fire shot after shot after the bubble, the ghost inside growling not in pain, but anger. It formed ice spikes around it's suface and returned their fire, penetrating the windshield and engine of the Speeder, causing it to spin out of control and crashed to the ground.

"Sam! Tucker!" Danny shouted and flew to his friends' rescue.

One of the ice hands backhanded him and he spun to the ground, just about knocking all the sense out of him. He looked up shakily and vaguely saw Sam and Tucker crawling from the wreckage, both beaten up and cut up by the crash. The other clawed hand reached for them to deliver a fatal blow, and Danny couldn't do anything to stop it.

Suddenly, a snarling creature descended from the sky and pounced on the hand, biting it and shattering it. It was a giant three-headed dog; Danny thought he recognized it from somewhere but at the moment wasn't sure. The beast swiftly but gently picked up Sam and Tucker in two of its' mouths, then ran for Danny. The monster reformed its' hand and slashed for the dog, but it dodged the attack and crushed it in its' unoccupied jaws. When it reached Danny, it gently lifted him in his jaws then took off toward the sky. The creature inside the blob fired several ice spikes toward the retreating beast, but it easily dodged and escaped with the trio.

It was then Danny finally realized what the dog was before he lost consciousness; it was Pandora's pet Cerberus.

…

Danny opened his eyes slowly and tried to focus on his surroundings. He was lying on a bed in his human form after blacking out, his injuries bandaged and treated. Dazed and somewhat confusing, the ghost teen slowly sat up, still dizzy from his battle. Where were Sam and Tucker? Were they all right?

Cerberus lay next to his bed guarding him, it sat up and greeted him by licking Danny's face happily with all three of its' tongues. He weakly pushed the dog's heads away, swung his legs over the edge of the bed and tried to stand up. His weak legs began to shake and he almost collapsed, Cerberus catching him with its' snout. Danny laughed and allowed the beast to help support him as he made his way to the room where he heard voices coming from.

Pandora sat in a high throne at a table; Sam and Tucker were bandaged as well and were discussing what had happened. They looked up and noticed Danny and the giant dog making their way into the room.

"Danny!" Sam and Tucker jumped up and rushed toward her friend.

They hugged him and nearly knocked Danny over. Cerberus licked them both happily and they all guided Danny toward a chair sitting up to the table. The teen sat down heavily and leaned back against the backrest, still quite exhausted.

"Welcome back to my palace," the goddess said warmly.

Pandora's servants had prepared a wonderful meal for the trio, good thing too because Danny was starving after exerting all his energy. He tried to mind his manners, but it all looked so good and he was just so hungry, shoveling down various meats and fruits. Pandora didn't seem to mind his manners as she was deep in thought about something, obviously whatever she had been discussing with Sam and Tucker. Cerberus padded to its' master and sat at her side, she stroked one of his three heads with one of her many hands.

Danny gulped down a large goblet of water to wash everything down and sighed, "Thank you, that really hit the spot," he patted his stomach in satisfaction then winced at the pain and remembering his battle, "Oh, and thanks for saving us."

Pandora's face suddenly became very serious, "You three were lucky to survive your encounter with it, I'm just glad Cerberus was able to find you in time."

The raven-haired teen sat back up, remembering their mission, "We actually came to the ghost zone to find some answers about it. This zombie ghost? Its' been attacking us and—"

The goddess raised a hand, "Your two friends have already filled me in about your encounters. We have been waiting for you to wake up so I can explain what I know about this creature."

All three teens sat in their seats and faced the tall woman as she furrowed her brow in thought, searching for words.

"It all started many eons ago. The ghost zone was full of sorrow, hate, and pain; it was consuming us and poisoning our world. The wisest of ghosts gathered in a counsel to discuss how we could save our world. This is when I created my box, to contain all the evils of the world, but even that wasn't enough. A wise old ghost named Lesous had then created a being that could consume what my box could not hold, and devour the evil spirits themselves that caused the pain and heartache. We called it Lucem, meaning 'before the light', for it was giving light into the darkness of the ghost zone.

"At first, it was very docile, happy to serve us and make the ghost zone a better place. But we did not know that the pain and sorrow it consumed was now poisoning it, turning it foul. We did not see this until it was too late, and Lucem turned on us. It could smell the deepest, darkest part of our souls, and that's what drew it to feed. Pain and suffering became like a drug to it, and it craved it all the time, so once it consumed all the sorrow in the ghost zone, it decided to create more suffering for it to consume.

"It laid waste to all the beauty in the ghost zone as it created more pain and suffering for it to feed on. The more it consumed, the stronger it became. The most powerful warriors of the ghost zone faced it in battle, but were no match and simply fell prey to its' insatiable appetite. Even the wise and powerful members of the counsel were devoured, leaving no one to stand in its' path. It had even managed to break the barrier between the human world and ghost world, travelling to and from each world to sate its' hunger. Lesous was ashamed that he had created such a monster, which was now destroying the ghost zone it was created to save. In an attempt to save the ghost zone once and for all, Lesous created an artifact that could slay Lucem. He constructed it with the last of his strength and called it the Crown of Blades. Lesous used it in his final battle with Lucem, but its' power was too great, and since Lesous had nothing left but pain and sorrow, Lucem consumed him as well. But not before Lesous struck a fatal blow at the beast, causing it to spew all its' evil energy back into the ghost zone and thus was subdued.

"But instead of simply fading from existence, it went into a dormant state, into hibernation one might say. It survived only on the last energy reserves of evil it had consumed, giving it just enough life to keep existing. In order to continue to exist, it must reawaken to feed and replenish its' energy. It reawakens every two hundred to feed, travelling between human and ghost worlds to replenish its' strength. It feeds for twenty years, then returns to sleep. For thousands of years, Lucem repeated this cycle, but it was too weak to pose a threat after its' initial defeat, the power from the blow of the Crown of Blades suppressing the evil and hate it harbored.

"Somehow, during _this _time of its' awakening however, Lucem has been able to find a source of pain and suffering strong enough to bring it back into power. Upon finding this reservoir of sorrow, it has been able to grow in strength. It may soon pose a lethal threat to both the human and ghost world again."

Pandora paused to let the tale sink into the teens' minds. It was quite an overwhelming piece of history to process. The trio knew most likely what this 'reservoir' she was speaking of was, but they bit their tongues and kept quiet.

"So," Danny finally spoke, "What will happen if Lucem returns to power?"

"It will destroy our worlds," the goddess simply said, "unless it somehow doesn't reach its' full power before its' twenty years are up."

"How do we know when its' twenty years are up then?" Sam stared wide-eyed.

"No one truly knows when it awakens, or where it slumbers. In its' early years it is almost impossible to detect when it first awakens. Lucem could have been awake for five years, ten years, we don't know."

"If it's so powerful, then why doesn't it just destroy everything now?"

Pandora leaned back and sighed lightly, "With every ghost it devours, in order for it to convert the ghost into energy, it must convert it internally, and in order to do that, it must return to a semi-dormant state. When it is reborn, the ghosts it consumes become part of it, and changes its' appearance, similar to the metamorphosis of a butterfly. That was the state you fought it in."

"Man," Tucker leaned back, "if its' that strong when it's semi-dormant, imagine what it'll be like now when that bubble pops."

"It likely won't 'pop' for some time, it did consume an entire village after all, that's a lot of ghosts to process in its' system," Pandora took and sip from her goblet.

Danny shuddered and gripped the edge of the table as he imagined his friends in Far Frozen fighting against it and falling prey to it, "Is there anything we can do to stop it?"

"The Crown of Blades is the only artifact that can destroy it. But it was lost in the battle with Lesous and no one has been able to recover it. If we can find the Crown of Blades, then we can destroy it once and for all," Pandora said as she clenched a fist, "but it was likely destroyed along with Lesous."

A small creature that looked very much like a fawn then entered the room and bowed to Pandora, "It is finished your Excellency."

The goddess stood up, "I believe it's time to return you three to your ghost portal to the human world."

"But the Specter Speeder is completely thrashed," Tucker argued.

"My servants have retrieved your 'Specter Speeder' and have been hard at work repairing it. But it appears it is ready now."

"Wait!" Danny spoke up again, "May I ask you something else?"

Pandora raised an eyebrow then sat back in her throne, "What is it?"

Danny fiddled with his hands, unsure of what to say and how to say it, "Well, you see … I have heard that, ghosts are spirits of the dead, and are drawn to pain and suffering, and that some, including Lucem, feed on emotions … is that true?"

The goddess drummed her fingers together, "Yes, for some ghosts it is true. Many ghost are spirits that may have died a painful death, or a tragic one, and they seek out kindred spirit energy. They like to see others suffer as they have suffered, and feeling of that energy and being reenergized by it. It's what makes them feel whole; to be in contact with the same sad emotions as their own. There are other ghosts that are either natural born or passed away peacefully, and do not feel the need to cause pain or seek it out, but simply exist."

Sam and Tucker were confused; they weren't with Danny when he had his little chat with Vlad so they had no idea what he was talking about.

The raven-haired teen continued to explain, "I was speaking with Plasmius, and he mentioned that he was feeding off the energy of … a friend of mine. And that my friend's tragic past and pain is what draws ghosts to … him."

"Dude, are you talking about Hen—" Tucker was roughly jabbed in the ribs by Sam's elbow; Danny was obviously trying to keep her identity secret.

"Yes?" Pandora was mildly intrigued, "And?"

Danny swallowed, "Well, he said he was drawn to my friend because of his pain, and as a ghost I should be too, but I don't feel anything like that. In fact, it actually hurts me to see my friend hurting and I feel happy when he's happy. So if it's true that ghosts seek out pain, why am I not feeling that?"

"Hmm," Pandora scratched her chin, "It is possible that your human side is dominating over your ghost side."

"Yeah," Danny continued, "but Plasmius is half ghost half human too, and he's drawn to my friend's pain, so why—"

Pandora held up her hand, "Be still and let me speak."

Danny instantly went silent and sunk down in his seat. Even though he knew Pandora was not his enemy, her presence still demanded respect.

"As I was saying," she sounded slightly irritated, "it seems to me that your human side is dominating over your ghost side. It is likely that Plasmius has given in to his ghostly desires and has little of his humanity left. But you still retain your humanity; causing whatever ghostly desires you may have to be suppressed. You are more human than ghost in that respect, and thus still have a human's morality. Plasmius is more ghost than human now, and such notions seem to no longer exist within him."

"Trust me," Tucker folded his arms and leaned back, "that guy has no regard of anyone other than himself. He uses his powers and wealth to get whatever he wants and doesn't mind stepping over anyone to get it."

"Is that what you went to Plasmius for?" Sam turned to Danny.

The ghost teen felt like he was on the spot, "Yeah, there were just a couple things I had to find out and I figured he could help, but he turned out to be not much help."

Pandora stood back up, "If we are finished here, I believe it's time for you to return home."

The trio stood up, the fawn motioning them to follow him to where their Specter Speeder was being kept.

"Could we come back another time if we need advise again?" Danny asked hopefully.

"No," the goddess suddenly seemed sad and subdued, "This will likely be our last encounter."

The teens were shocked, "What?" Tucker blurted, "What do you mean?"

"Lucem will likely be coming for me soon as well, and I don't think I'll be able to fight it off this time."

Cerberus whimpered and nudged her hand, sensing its' master's distress. The fawn grabbed Danny's arm and began to lead them away.

"Wait! We can stay and help!" Danny grasped at any hope, "You shouldn't have to stand up to it alone! Let us help you!"

Pandora turned away from them, "Leave now."

…

After a very drawn out departure, the trio made their way home, still trying to comprehend what had happened. They travelled in silence, the only sound being the empty echoes of the ghost zone. What was there to say?

They arrived home without incident and unpacked the Specter Speeder, doing another check over it to make sure it was in the same condition as they left so Danny's parents wouldn't notice it had even left. When they went upstairs, they noticed it was getting dark outside; how long _had_ they been in the ghost zone?

"We'd probably better head home," Sam finally spoke up, "tomorrow is Monday so we'll have to get up early for school."

"Yeah," Tucker agreed in a subdued tone, "I'm kinda tired after today anyway."

Danny yawned, "Me too, been a long day."

The teen ghost walked his friends to the front door and said goodnight. There was still a somber mood in the air as Danny went upstairs to his room. Even though he was exhausted, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep that night. He was about to change into some pajamas when a thought crossed his mind, _I should probably check up on Henry_.

Even though she had told him earlier that Uncle Rege didn't want him over, but what harm could it do just to go over and check up on her? Besides, he needed to make sure she was safe, not only from ghosts, but from her uncle. Danny had wished they could spend the day together like they planned, but at least he got some answers to some questions he'd had for weeks now.

He turned invisible and intangible and fly off toward her house. Staying invisible, he hovered just outside her window and looked inside. Same as always, Henry was laying on her bed reading a book. She appeared to be ok, but Danny still wanted to check in. He perched carefully in the branches of the tree, became visible again and tapped on her window. The little redhead jolted at being startled and saw him outside her window.

Henry waved happily and opened her window, "What're you doing here?" she whispered.

Danny laughed sheepishly, "I just came to see if you were all right."

It took a moment for her to realize what he meant by that, "Oh, I'm fine, just spent the day with Uncle Rege and the boys. He mostly sat in his armchair, smoking and drinking and watched TV, Ben and Tommy played in the yard and made messes and I mostly stayed upstairs reading and doing homework. It's how we usually spend our 'family weekends'," she smiled, "How was your day?"

"Oh," Danny didn't really want to say anything that might worry her, "I just hung out with Sam and Tucker, just goofed off and whatnot."

"Hmm, sounds like fun—"

"Henry!" came an angry shout from downstairs, "What's going on up there? Who're you talking to?"

She gasped, "I gotta go," and leaned out to give Danny a quick peck on the lips, "Goodnight Danny, see you tomorrow, love you!" and slammed the window closed.

Unfortunately, Danny's fingers just happened to be in the window when she closed it. He shouted in pain and jerked his hands free, falling backward out of the tree, hitting every branch on the way down. The teen lay in the dirt, rolling around slightly and shaking the pain from his hands; the fall had reminded him of how sore he still was from the battle.

"What was that?" another angry shout, the front door swung open and heavy footsteps came across the porch, "Is that your blasted cat again?"

Danny quickly went invisible and flew off for home. Well, he came to make sure she was ok, and she was ok, no point in sticking around and facing Uncle Rage's wrath.

…

End Chapter 14

…

Well, hopefully this chapter is easy to understand, and explained a few questions I'm sure everyone had. I'll try to update sooner, but I've got a lot of projects besides this fic I'm working on, one being making all four cores for my friend's Portal cosplay.

**For those of my fans who have been reading this fic from the very start, this is the end of my revamping, the rest will continue as I planned, I apologize again for the inconvenience.


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